Summer Palace - March 16

Today is the day for the Summer Palace and Greal Wall. I am not able to go after hurting my leg and am pretty much wheel chair bound. Stan said the Summer Palace was his favorite place. It has a beautiful lake. It is so nice to go to these parks where people are doing all sorts of activites.

     

 

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The Great Wall of China - March 16

The Great Wall is so amazing. It is not to be missed when visiting China.

 

 

 

 

 

Forbidden City - March 15

These are some of the pictures Stan and the girls took while at Forbidden City. The detail on these old buildings is absolutly amazing.

 

 

 

 

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Temple of Heaven - Good News and Bad News

Day started with breakfast buffet at the hotel. It was again excellent. We were able to have many traditional Chinese dishes with congee, cooked Chinese greens, variety of breads but also eggs made to order, American cereals like rice krispies and corn flakes. We had something new called Hawthorne juice. The girls have liked a candy called Haw so we thought it might be the same. It was wonderful. Also had congee which is a sort of rice soup but can add things to it which makes it even better. I am not sure what I added - something like a marinated vegetables. I have made congee before but it is these added ingredients which make it so good.

We then headed to Temple of Heaven. The children were giving a traditional Chinese toy, can't think of the name right now, that is kicked with their feet or arms. Temple of Heaven is one of those morning places were people meet to exercise, visit, play games, and music. It was mostly retired people. Retirement age in China is 50-55 for women and 55-60 for men. I got some short videos of some of the activities but have just put on one.

First I should explain, I cannot view my blog from China. I can preview but so far video is not showing up in the preview. So I hope I picked the videos showing the activities or perhaps it is video of the children playing with the kick toys.

The Chinese at one time considered the Temple of Heaven the center of the earth. It is a beautiful building and amazingly built with no nails.

We each have a camera so we are getting lots of pictures. However I am having a little trouble getting the pictures on and I accidently hit the button to publish. Since I mentioned bad news, I best go to that and go back and add pictures.

When getting on the bus, after leaving Temple of Heaven, I stepped wrong getting on the bus and I pulled something - it feels like a sprain - and cannot walk. I missed the market tour and Peking Duck dinner. Looks like tomorrow will be missing the Great Wall. I can't begin to say how disappointed I am. Yes I have seen these things before but wanted to see them with Anna and Lauren and you can't see the Great Wall too many times.

We were scheduled to come back to hotel after market tour but on the way our guide made phone calls and had wheel chair waiting when we arrived. This is when having a guide is really important.

It gets worse. Lauren has been having a fever which we were treating. Tonight she had bloody nose. She has only had 1 or 2 small ones but this one made up for them. This is where being a hands on Dad is good because Stan handled it. Two rolls of toilet paper later we thought it had stopped, she sneezed and it started again, finally he went to put her in bed, and it started again. It went on for more then half hour. She is such a little trooper. Again this is where guide is helpful. Instead of calling front desk and trying to explain, I just called her and she called and explained to them in Chinese.

Tomorrows schedule is long - won't be back till 9 PM. We are thinking she should stay at hotel since it was very late before she went to sleep. They were both very tired after today and still did not get to sleep till late and very late for Lauren.

Going to try and add another picture. I may have figured out better way to add pictures.

 

Arrival in Beijing

We have arrived in Beijing. Flight was fairly smooth. You might have heard of disruption at Heathrow Airport with man running on to the runway. It happened while we were there but it was no problem.

Anna and Lauren had a real treat. The pilots allowed them to see the cock pit. Also allowed us to take a picture of Lauren with her bear from school. This is a very well traveled bear who is allowed to go along with people on trips. Their teacher showed us album of pictures of him in Kenya. The pilots had humor of putting him in scarf and sun glasses.

Our plane landed at the new airport building in Beijing. It is so beautiful it took my breath. I wanted to pull my camera and take pictures but priority was to get through the airport. It is so large and open and beautifully designed. There are staff to help and make sure you get through smoothly.

Number of people have asked how long is the flight. It varies from 9-10 hours - I think we were 9 hours and 45 minutes. Our flight left around 5:00 pm. We have liked night flying because we get on, have dinner, have some time to watch tv, or read and go to sleep. It passes very quickly this way.

There was a fascinating program on about the building of the Great Wall. It combined the history of how it was built, how the villages came to be around it, and families today who live in those villages.

We were met after going through customs by our guide, Lily, who is with Our Chinese Daughters Foundation, group we are using to organize our tour. Van was there ready to take us to hotel, the Oriental Culture Hotel. I think it was about 1:00 pm when we arrived so we had time to rest before dinner with the group at 6:00. Even though we had slept on the plane, we were still tired, but it is best to try and stay awake, get sunlight, drink water to help your body adjust quicker to time change.

We had a wonderful dinner at the hotel. Wonderful Chinese dishes. We love Chinese food but I think it was such that people who are new to it could try it and find things they liked.

The children were given a beautiful Chinese memory box, a traditional Chinese dress called Qipao, traditonal outfit for the little boy on the trip, and workbook which was photo album covered in Chinese material. It is filled with pages to review what the children have learned and notice other things they will be learning.

We Are On Our Way to China!

Tomorrow we leave for China. I included our first pictures of Anna and Lauren since that is where it all began. We have planned to take them for a visit for several years but it came up bit quicker then we had thought once we learned the girls had 3 weeks off for Easter. Anna is 8 and Lauren will turn 7 while we are visiting her city. People say this is great age for their first vist. They are excited but nervous too not quite knowing what to expect.

You will see I have added Weather and Time on this blog. The time does not always keep up. If you want to know what time it is, use google and enter Time in China to get the exact time. I have been doing this several times a day since the group we are using to plan our trip, Our Chinese Daughters Foundation, has offices in Beijing and Chicago area.