Well, it was another great day of adventure! First we went to Tiananmen Square and Greg bargained for a hat because it was rather chilly! You will notice in the pictures below that it wasn’t just your everyday hat! There were thousands of people lined up to pay their respects to Mao! I’m still scratching my head on that one when his failed policies of the 1950s led to the deaths of more than 30 million Chinese!
Now I understand why the Forbidden City is Beijing’s most famous tourist attraction, it was awesome! I love the architecture and the beautiful hand painted detail on the palaces.
We went to a silk factory and that was very interesting. We almost bought a silk comforter but by the time Greg & I could come up with a decision about what we liked best, our group was waiting for us on the bus. (probably a good thing)
My favorite thing today was the rickshaw ride. We thought the bike was going to do a wheely when we sat down! Our driver had to walk a little bit to get the bike going before he started pedaling. His huffing and puffing indicated that we Americans were a little bit much for what he was used to! We actually had the opportunity to visit the home of a local family. It was an older couple and the woman shared her life story with us. The picture below is what an average person’s home looks like. There was a translator that really did a great job explaining all of the changes that have happened between the old China and the new China. The elderly man who lives in the house was big into Opera and to keep his voice healthy, he drinks snake oil everyday! (picture below)
We fly out tomorrow morning for Guangzhou! Now were down to less than 2 days before we get our baby girl!
