Our first day in Beijing

Last night I managed to scrape up enough motivation to wake Adrian up off the desk and go out to eat. Which was not easy. Adrian says he would rather take a boat back home rather than the plane...I am so with you my friend... So, we walked to a local restaurant and had perch, noodles and dumplings. It was very good. After being in China twice you would think I would be used to it but it is still really strange to see people smoking in restaurants and even putting cigarettes out on the floor or the little boy who stepped out on the stairs a foot outside the restaurant to pee! And the driving! Wow, I don't think I'll ever get used to that! Our taxi almost hit a man on a bike on the way to the hotel yesterday. I yelled out loud and the taxi driver chuckled and was not shaken a bit.

After a pretty good night's rest we got moving early and had a nice breakfast at our hotel, Michael's House. It is really beautiful in here. Situated in the heart of a hutong (old stone authentic Chinese neighborhood) it is like a sanctuary in the center of busy Beijing. It is an old home converted into a hotel and it sits around a courtyard. The courtyard is really beautiful and peaceful. It is a lot like the Double Happiness where we stayed last time Aaron and I traveled almost 2 years ago. Adrian and I have the best room in the house. The "Emperor's Suite". Because we needed a crib in the room on our last night, you know- for our guest of honor - so they upgraded us for free. So nice of them!

Look it's Mexican Tomato Chicken Lays and what?! are those what I think they are? Yes! Plain Lays!

Someone was looking out for me this time!

It was cooler today than yesterday. It was in the 80s and rained a bit which felt great. We met up with Angela here at the hotel after breakfast. Angela is the same guide Aaron and I used. It was wonderful to see her! Her husband drove us today. We started by going to the Lama Temple which was pretty uneventful. I had hoped to actually see the monks praying but they start at 4 am and go again at 7 pm so we missed that. But we did see the largest buddha statue in China- standing at nearly 60 feet.

Adrian and I got our picture taken with the mama lion holding down her cub with one paw. I thought that was symbolic for me and my teenager... 

Then we went on our hutong tour where we rode on rickshaws around the old neighborhoods and along the lake. It started to rain during this but luckily Angela had thought of bringing umbrellas so we put it over our legs and we were good to go. The rain felt great and cooled things off. We had a bit of a rickshaw fender bender with another rickshaw which was cause for some excitement. Think hundreds and hundreds of rickshaws crowded down these streets with pedestrians, cars, dogs and I guess a bump here and there is inevitable. Pure pandemonium I tell ya!

As we were leaving, the rain was falling and the lotus were in full bloom- one week later than usual. A sign for me as my little YuHe's name means "rain on the lotus".

Then we moved on to a hot pot lunch, which consisted of a large pot of two different broths (one spicy hot, one not) and we boiled all kinds of different things in them - lamb, mushrooms, potatoes, bok choy, beef, tofu, fish, noodles. It was delicious, but the spicy hot was mild and was still really darn hot for me. And yes, that is a fork. Don't judge, it was either that or starve because I couldn't get a darn thing from that pot to my bowl. Adrian did pretty good though. Don't know how he learned how to do that.

Then we went to the Temple of Heaven which is where the emperor went to worship. When it was built in the 1600's it was built larger than the Forbidden City because of its religious significance. It was thought that the world was square and the sky was round so it starts out square and the end (or heaven) is circular. This is the echo wall. If you stand on one side and talk the sound with travel hundreds of feet to the other side. I didn't believe it until sure enough, Angela's voice came around and said "can you hear me?" and "I will wait for you on this side". It sounded like she was standing right next to me! That really was so cool! The rest of the park was filled with the smell of Juniper trees and the sound of people playing cards and music. I really enjoyed this. After seeing most of the sights in Beijing now I highly recommend seeing the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven.

And I'll wrap it up with a funny sight - as we were walking back to the car from lunch this is the sign we saw outside of the public toilet- hmmm.. I could see how most of these warnings might be necessary except for the fasten your safety belt thing... Obviously it is very dangerous to use the public toilets here so we will steer clear.