July 5, 2005
A Day of Touring Beijing

5:45 am (China time) - Check back! Our day has just started!

9:30 pm (China time) - Today was a very long day for us. We started early today as you can see when we first posted. Due to the time change we were up at 3:30 in the morning. We went down to breakfast about 6:30 am and tried out the breakfast buffet that is included with our room. Not bad. Some interesting Chinese dumplings were served along with the standard American breakfast foods. After breakfast we had some time to spare before we had to meet the group for our sightseeing tour. Bill decided he wanted to check out the area around the hotel. As we walked off the grounds of the hotel we were immediately met by a taxi driver who wanted to take us all over the place. After trying to explain that we didn't need a ride we looked around for a short time and then headed back to the hotel.

At 8 am we headed off to the Forbidden City and Tianamen Square. And once again it was a very hot and humid day. There were a couple of people in the group who had a really hard time with it. Our guide is great, but she can talk A LOT. Which sort of extended the trip out just a little bit. Our group was also very popular with the local sightseeing crowd. We had 2 children in our group, both with blond hair and fair skin. Many of the Chinese tourists who come from small towns outside of the area have never seen Caucasian boys and girls before and they find them fascinating. They would come up and want to take pictures with the 4 year old and would try to pick him up. It just freaked him out, poor guy.

Once we left the gate at the Forbidden City we were over-run by street vendors and beggars. The street vendors are pretty easy to ignore, but the beggars were very disturbing. Some were missing arms or legs, others were deformed. There was this one beggar that was being shuffled around by what seemed to be his mother. He looked like a burn victim. Bill gave in and gave the boy some money. Well, that opened the flood gates. Suddenly every beggar in the area swarmed around Bill. Our guide had to get Bill out of there and the police ended up shoving a couple to the ground. What an interesting experience.

After the Forbidden City we had lunch at a restaurant on the way to the Great Wall. The restaurant building also houses a cloisonne factory. It was very interesting seeing how they create the such intricate art. Also in the building was a "Friendship Store" which is basically like a huge souvenir shop. Amazingly enough we were good and refrained from buying out the store.

After lunch it was another 10 minutes to the Great Wall. By that time some of the group was tired and a little reluctant to climb it. About half of the group, including Alana, only went up to the first tower. Others went up to the second or third tower. There are 7 towers on this section of the wall and the trek to get up to the 7th tower is pretty steep. Most people don't make it. Well, guess who made up their mind that they were going to go all the way up. Bill was the conquering hero when he went all the way up. We even applauded him when he got back to the bus. If a picture is worth a thousand words, check out the picture of Bill at the top of the wall. The funny thing is when Bill made it to the top there were these 2 little old ladies sitting up there like it was no big deal to make this trek that had stopped younger men in their tracks. Meanwhile, Alana was the smart one and waited on the air conditioned bus along with the other brilliant people. But not before she took a picture standing on the wall to prove that she had been there.

On the way back to the hotel our guide, Cindy layed out the schedule for the next day, Gotcha Day. It's funny, but after such a long day of sightseeing we almost forgot why we were in China. They must do that to get our minds off of the upcoming craziness/emotional experience that is coming. Tomorrow we will hold Tyler in our arms for the first time and it's a thought that just knocks the wind right out of you. We will be getting him about 4:30 pm China time. Hopefully we will be able to post pictures and a journal entry tomorrow because we know that is why most of you keep checking our website, but we'll be honest and say we're not sure how that is going to go. At that point it's going to be up to Tyler. We'll try to at least post some pictures. Until tomorrow...

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