| Our first day in China included shopping trips to pearl and jade factories, a hike on the Great Wall, and a yummy lunch at a Friendship Store (store/restaurant just for tourists). Beijing was experiencing the coldest January weather in 13 years, with high temperatures in the teens. Needless to say, the Great Wall was COLD! For dinner, we were on our own, so we joined some others from our group and, after much discussion, ended up at the food court in the mall across from our hotel. The food was very good and Tim and I ate dinner for $4 total! The next day, we visited Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. All three sights were amazing! I was standing in Tiananmen Square when it finally hit me that I was in China! It was still incredibly cold, but there was a blessing in this too, in that we didn't have to fight crowds or deal with a lot of germs. Only a couple of people in our travel group of 20 plus became ill during the entire trip! In addition, the cold windy weather blew all the pollution out of Beijing, so we actually saw bright blue sky! I did have a few nervous moments at the Summer Palace when another woman and I got separated from the group. The Summer Palace is a huge place, and due to the weather, was fairly deserted. We finally found our way back to the correct gate, and our guide. I was so glad I had my pocket Chinese language book--we did use it to ask directions to the gate. I don't think we would have known which way to go without help! Since the rest of the group had split up and gone looking for us, our guide asked if we could wait in the police station while he looked for the others. Now THAT was an experience. The station was little more than a guard booth, and the policemen looked pretty intimidating wearing army-style uniforms and carrying rifles. However, they were very polite, offered their chairs, and we stayed warm until the group was all together. It ended well, and we were able to do some shopping before yet another delicious dinner. That evening, we attended a performance of an acrobatic company. The stunts they did were incredible--I had never seen anything like it! Of course, even while we were being entertained, our thoughts were on Cathryn. We were scheduled to fly to Zhanjiang the next afternoon, and we might possibly even meet the babies that evening! We tried to comprehend that this might be our last evening before becoming parents, but our little jet-lagged, overstimulated and overjoyed minds couldn't quite wrap around that idea. |
