BUSY DAY IN CHINA

We woke up at 4 a.m. The hotel is connected to a mall. A really big mall with an ice skating rink. When we woke up we walked around the empty mall for awhile. We got back a little before six and they let us eat breakfast a little early. Then off to our days adventure.

I had to take a picture of the Chinese Resteraunt where we ate lunch. It just looked so authenic. Oh wait, it was. So authenic in fact that the soup crunched becuase it had bones or beaks or something in it. Not sure what it was, not sure I want to know. The food was different the U.S. Chinese food but we liked it.

Sean's BFF in China. Her name is Ella and she is six. She is from San Diego. Her parents are Chinese so she speaks Chinese. Ellie and her two year old brother Joshua are the only other kids in the tour group. Sean and Ellie really hit it off. They are very cute together. Unfortunatley Ella was only on the tour one day. The rest of the time they visited her mom's friends in Beijing. She and Sean said hello every morning at breakfast.

The 2008 Olympic Bird nest.

Nasty Squat pot. I have to admit I was intrigued. Mostly I wondered how a toilet at the Olympic village that was frozen could smell so bad. I was wearing a mask to boot. Funny thing in China. They have so many bathroom attendents yet so many of their bathrooms are nasty. At one of the bathrooms a lady cleaned the toilet between each person.

Tiananmen Square is a large city square in the center of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen Gate (Gate of Heavenly Peace) located to its North, separating it from the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is the third largest ciy square in the world (440,000 m² - 880m by 500m or 109 acres- 960 by 550 yd). It has great cultural significance as it was the site of several important events in Chinese history.

Nothing says Bejing like a surgical mask. The air wasn't too bad today. We wore mask becasue we were freezing our faces off. We will dress a little differently for tomorrow adventurs.

Just can't get enough of those squat pots. This is a very nice pot. I can pee in them pretty good but not so sure about managing any other business. Sean was very intrigued by them. He slipped and I thought he was going to get really up close and persona.

The Forbidden City was HUGE! I didn't have any expectations but it was overwhelming. There were just palaces after palaces built in the 1400's. Home to emperor's their concubines and their eunichs.

Amazing archtiechture. The color yellow was considered royal and only the emperor's could use them.

A ceiling in the emperil chambers at the Forbidden City.

Sean has been playing lots of Mario. The doors looked like something Bowser was going to jump out of. Sean reminded me "Mom, Bowser isn't real." True but I still wouldn't have been surprised if Bowser didn't pop out and we got sprinkled with Fairy dust.

Sean took this picture from Don's shoulders.

Sean got to have his name written in the snow on a bench in the Forbidden City in Bejing. I thought that was a fun memory.

An alley to the living area of one of the forbidden cities.

The spring garden. Didn't look very springy because we were freezing our feet off. I'm glad Sean had the extra Iron Man hat packed otherwise I would have been freezing my head off. Actually I would have bought a hat from the stalking wendors. (Vendors but Jim our travel guide can't pronoune V's he calls them cwazy winnders and tells us to stay away from them "they will pock your pickets." Jim said "China has faces and books but no facebook." He's a regular comedian. He spends all his time counting us to make sure he hasn't lost any one in the group and telling jokes. It was so icey today people in our group kept falling. Don carried Sean around on his shoulders. That made me nervous because if he went down Sean would crack his crown.

This may have been a part of the slipping on ice problem. This is Chinese idea of snow blowing. They have these brooms that are thached together and they move the snow around. At least four people from our group fell. It was COLD and snowy. I wore my walking shoes which are really thin and near about froze my feet off. Tomorrow, thicker shoes and a couple of pairs of sock. Live and Learn! I guess if that want's the case it wouldn't be much of an adventure.

A white out behind us at Tiananmen Square.

There are hug copper vats all around the forbidden city. I am sure setting your kid in one is forbidden but we did it fast so no one yelled at us.