First Day in Beijing!

Was exhausting and exhilarating!  Beijing is awesome.  What a great city.  The people are wonderful, and many speak English!  I'm so glad I learned a little Chinese -- they love it!  Our guide Li is really nice, and is teaching us tons about Chinese Culture, History, the Language and mannerisms.  Our first day was quite full!!  OK, I'm lying!  It was packed with new experiences and, of course, some shopping!

We started our day with breakfast, and had an hour to kill so we went for a quick walk up to the pedestrian street, WuFangJing, looking for a little market to get some juice and water for the room.  We ran into some students outside our Hotel who were really interesting to talk to.  They were directing us to a market, but heeding our guide's warning not to follow anyone, we disengaged after a while and walked back. They were so nice though!!  But, you never really know.  So, we played it safe.  We found a little market on the way back to the Hotel, so we were probably wise to leave them.

We met up with guide and started our day with a History lesson spanning many dynasties and emperors on our way to the Summer Palace.  It was really beautiful ...

At the Summer Palace, our guide treated us to an ear of steamed, sticky corn on the cob.  I can still feel the stickiness of it!!!  It was neither sweet, nor crisp, like our corn on the cob, but still pretty good.  After the Summer Palace, we went to lunch at a university restaurant nearby.  Yes, it's all about food!!!  We had ... you guessed it!!  Chinese food very similar to what we get here.  It was delicious.  By the way, the Chinese eat sharing plates!!  You just dip your chopstix into the plate and eat right off it!!  (Jen, you would probably starve!! LOL)  At the University, I had my first squatty potty experience!!  Thanks for all the RQ Blog Posts about it, I can honestly say I mastered it!  I'll even confess that it was easier than hovering!!  OK -- TMI, I know.

After lunch we went to the Silk Factory, where they showed us how silk cocoons are transformed into beautiful quilts, comforters and clothing.  No, we did not leave without buying anything!!!  (OK, I bought TWO silk comforters!  But, only because I was so impressed with the way they compress the packaging for travel!!).  I'm only sorry that I did not buy a twin sized one for Hadley when she's older, but I'm sure she'll appreciate the queen sized one eventually.  I know I will!!

I took some video that I'll share with you later, but for now, here's some photos:

After the Silk Factory, our guide was done for the day, but that didn't stop us!! We dropped out packages in the room, and grabbed a taxi over to the Temple of Heaven.  It was ... divine?   LOL.  Really, it may have been prettier than the Summer Palace, but it was really comparable.  The difference was that it was less crowded because it was later in the day, and without the guide, we felt a little less hindered.  We took our time and had an opportunity to soak in the beauty of the park and its monuments:

Near the Temple of Heaven is the Pearl Market, which is not really a pearl market at all, but it's rather everything they make in China, but really cheap!!!  We had a blast!!  They LOVE to negotiate, and expect it (although it didn't go over well at the Silk Factory!!).  They will chase you down, even!!  We actually RAN away from one vendor.  Still trying to get the hang of the value of money here ... it's difficult to overcome the fact that something is 700CNY, but only a little over $100US.  No photos of the Pearl Market, but I'm sure we'll be back!!  It's only tolerable in small doses.  By the way, I don't think it's really the place to buy pearls!!!  Most of the stuff we saw was probably not even natural pearls at all!!  We'll wait for buying Pearls when we can get some guidance from our guide.

After the Pearl Market, we headed back to the Hotel, and grabbed a bite to eat at a nearby restaurant.  Nothing exciting to report there -- typical Chinese Food in a restaurant just like Chinatown!!  Good food, but LOTs of MSG that put me into a food coma almost immediately.

Today, we're off to the Great Wall.  Unfortunately, the section we wanted to explore SiMaTai, is closed because of construction.  So, we'll be heading to the MuTianYu section instead.  Hopefully, we'll go to the Jade Factory afterwards.  Then we have the rest of the day to explore on our own again.  Don't worry, we'll pack in some more adventure for you to follow!!