Day 2 Beijing

Yesterday was a fantastic day.  We woke up (earlier than we should)  and had the buffet breakfast here at the hotel.  We met our guide Charlotte in the lobby and our group boarded our bus.  It's nice, because we have our own driver and guide with us the entire day, so we don't have to wait around for rides or use public transportation.  We went to the jade factory here in Beijing,  it is the most well know factory in all of China and sells only the best quality jade.  Our guide told us that here in China the women love Jade more than diamonds and just like diamonds the Jade has different grades of quality.  We were given a tour,  we also had the opportunity to shop.  There were so many beautiful things, but the price tags were such a shock.  We thought things would be so inexpensive here, but there were pieces of Jade selling for $50,000 American Dollars .  We have had to use our math skills and convert the local currency Yuan (wan)  to dollars to see what we are really paying.  The dollar is not worth very much here, when we exchange our money we are sad it doesn't' t go very far.  After the factory we went to the Great Wall. 

Words can't even explain what an amazing experience that was.  It was emotional for me,  the reality of being in China and realizing the dream of adoption all hit me on that wall.  The weather was beautiful, We were able to breathe the fresh air and as we climbed we warmed up and along the way shed a few layers of heavy clothing.   There is so much pollution here in China the skies are always dark and grey.  The only time we have seen the sun was at the Great Wall.  Many Chinese couples get married at the wall, and I can understand why.  It is a very spiritual experience.  There was also a section of the wall that had a large link chain attached to the wall.  On that chain were several locks attached.  We were told a beautiful story about the locks. 

 

The story explains that a man newly married was called away by the emperor to go build the great wall.  He died building the wall.  When the wife got the news she went to the wall to find her husbands body and return it for a proper burial.  She walked the entire wall looking for her husband, and could not find him.  A spiritual leader counseled the woman that if she walked and wept with great mourning the entire wall she would find her husbands body.  The wall is 4000 miles.  She began her walk.  After much time passed,  the wall had a section fall off, and her husbands body was found.  She returned him home and buried him. 

 

The emperor heard of her story and summoned her to meet him...he wanted to compensate the woman for her loss.  She refused and returned to the wall, where she threw herself off the wall.   She was forever with her husband now.  Newlywed couples travel to the wall and purchase a lock to place on the chain at the wall, the lock represents eternally together forever. 

 

After the Great Wall we went to lunch, it was very good.  Everyone else had Saki with their lunch we had Coke Light...it's not called diet coke.  Also instead of the word "calories" on the label it is translated as the word " energy".  So Light Coke has zero energy.  Funny stuff.  We again had Chinese food and it was delicious... at the end of lunch they brought us a little snack fried food.  One of the men in our group tried it first and got so excited because he said they were chocolate filled.  I got one and it wasn't bad but I didn't think it tasted like chocolate at home.  We later found out it was a paste made from black bean paste.  We also went shopping  at the friendship store run by the government. 

 

We then went to an acrobatic show, followed by dinner.  At dinner we had duck.  That was a first.  I am running out of time, we will post some pictures.  We are catching a plane this morning (Sunday)  to our daughter's province.  We will meet her tomorrow!

 

Dawn

Beijing Day 1

Hello Everyone!

Happy New Year!  Today was our first full day in China.   We were so tired last night when the entire city rang in the New Year here we slept right through it.  We feel lucky we slept the entire night and now we are on a good sleeping schedule.  We are here with 3 other families adopting through our agency, and are having a good time getting to know everyone.   This morning we had a great breakfast at our hotel,  some of the funny things we noticed is our "western" ideas of what is considered breakfast food.  Pancakes, eggs, bacon, cereal, fruit.  Our buffet had all of these items, but also had every other kind of food you would eat for lunch or dinner.  I also had a server ask me to fill out a form about her service,  she stood over me the entire time and watched what I wrote.  I of course put excellent service with her watching.  It was a little awkward. 

 

We went to the Forbidden City today,  it was so beautiful and interesting.  We have several pictures, but because we have a slow connection,  we are limited on what we will share now.  Some of the history that we enjoyed learning about include a story about the ground we were walking on.  It was stones , and the stones were 15 layers deep, to prevent their enemies from attacking by digging under the city and coming up through the dirt.   The men were also allowed to enter from the front gates, their women entered through the back.  Also, the center gate and stairways were only for the emperor himself to walk on and through.  We got to see where the emperors use to live with their concubines.  The baby emperors would have their own section of the city and stay with their mother.  The mother was always veiled behind a curtain , that curtain was behind the throne where the emperor would sit, and the mother would tell the emperor what to say.  ( Things haven't changed much...now we just tell our kids what to text :) 

 

Many Chinese people travel very far to visit, and we quickly realized that some have never seen an American.  Many, many, many people stopped us and would get their picture taken with us.  It was a little silly.  Jeff caught one of them doing this with me. At one point it got to be that we were the bigger attraction than the Forbidden City and we had to just walk away from groups of people standing in line to take a picture with us. 

 

After the Forbidden City we went to a local noodle shop for lunch!  FANTASTIC!  We enjoyed lamb grilled with cilantro, broccoli, noodles, sweet and sour pork, kung pao chicken...it was family style eating.  The funny thing was our plates to eat off were about two inches in diameter.  They obviously don't eat the portions we do in the states. 

 

After lunch we did a little local shopping and bartering.  We didn't really get much because we have another flight and already paid for our overweight luggage getting here.  We are going to wait to shop until we get to the next province. 

 

We then went to Tiananmen Square.  It was soooo cold today, we didn't spend much time there.  We were glad we got to see it and learn some of the history behind it.  When it was built the Russian President sent their best architect to help design the square so you can see that influence in it's design.  Also, Mao the leader who's picture is at the square is buried in a crystal coffin on the square and people line up for hours to visit him.  It is a pilgrimage for many Chinese to see his body and many sacrifice greatly to get there. 

 

We are now at our hotel, and are getting ready to eat out. 

 

3 days until we meet our daughter!!!

 

{Dawn }