Tiananmen Square & The Forbidden City

Hello Again,

Yesterday was our first full day in Beijing was spent going to Tiananmen Square & The Forbidden City. It was such a gorgeous day, but cold. We are traveling with 2 other families that are also adopting. Luckily for Kai & Gracie, they have young kids, so they have had all sorts of fun together.

Around our hotel, there are people from all over the world, so we do not stick out too much. Tiananmen Square & The Forbidden City are very popular with Chinese tourists. Some of the Chinese people had never been to a large city before, so we were the first Caucasians they had ever seen. I was asked by a young woman if she could take a picture with me - I felt a little famous :) We also ran into a group of men, visiting from the Hunan Province, who asked where we were from. We were able to communicate with them in Chinese (those lessons are paying off). They were thrilled when we said that we were American's and said that America was great. Below is a photo of us with them.

The Forbidden City is absolutely beautiful and we spent about 3 hours walking around. It is strange for the Chinese to see Caucasian parents walking around with Chinese children. We kept hearing comments from them - very nice, but puzzled because the fact that many Americans adopt children from China is not a well known fact in China.

Here are some more photos of our time yesterday.

Afterwards we went out to a "Western Style" restaurant. Well, the Chinese ideal of American food is quite different from the real thing. They spelled bread "Byed", they had fruit pizza using fruit from a fruitcake, etc. The restaurant was full of Chinese people who probably thought it was the real thing. I wonder if our version of Chinese food is really different from the real thing. I can't really tell a difference.The last thing we did this day was to go on a tour of a "Hutong", which are the actual old dwellings of the Chinese people living in Beijing. It is actually a compound with separate living areas, surrounding a courtyard. In the older days, multiple generations of family members lived together. We rode in rickshaws and then went inside to visit with an actual family in the Hutong. It was a great experience. The old couple we visited were so nice and we took a photo with Mrs. Wong.

We ended the day with crashing at the hotel and ordered room service. The kids have been great. It has really helped that there are other kids for them to play with.

For those of you who have not been to China before, there are some differences between our two cultures that strike me as funny. I will try to share some of them with you each day. Here is my "Chinism" for the day:

According to our guide, the number 8 is very lucky. So, people try to have their cell phone # end with the number 8. To do this, they have to pay 2 - 3 times more than the regular rate. On the other hand, the number 4 is considered unlucky. So, if you have 4's in your cell phone #, you get a discounted rate.

I will post soon about our day at the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. We also had a great time shopping today. More soon.

Thank you so much for your comments and support. They mean so much to us.

Noelle