We had a good night's rest and got up at about 6:30 am this morning, went down to eat breakfast in the hotel restaurant, and met with our guide Helen at 9:00am to start our day of touring. First we went to Tiananmen Square today. It was very crowded. Next went to the Forbidden City. It was the ritual city center of two dynasties, the Ming (1368-1644) and the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), and the repository of their extensive collections. The original construction of the Imperial Palace was completed in 1420. It covers over 1,000,000 square meters, and the buildings alone account for an area of 170,000 square meters. It was a big place and very beautiful. We did a lot of walking. There were a total of forty eight people in our group, including children. We have two couples in our group who have been to China before and adopted; one of the couples is adopting the third little girl. After the Forbidden City tour, we stopped and had lunch, which was very good! Then we went for a rickshaw ride through a very traditional part of Beijing. We even were allowed to tour a family's home and learned about them and their traditions. The people here are really nice and go out of their way to greet you. We then went to watch a flying Acrobatics show. It was really neat to watch, and it gave us some time to sit and rest. Then, lastly, we went to a Peking duck restaurant, and they served dish after dish, anything from french fried sweet potatoes to fish and duck liver paste. Some of it we didn't recognize, but what we did was very good. The Chinese food here is 100 times better than in the U.S.! We arrived back at the hotel at about 8:00pm, and we are worn out. We are to meet our guide again at 9:00am in the morning to tour the Great Wal,l which is about a two mile drive from our hotel. After touring tomorrow, we should get back to the hotel around 4:30, and then Monday morning we get up early at 5:00am to meet our guide with seven of the families to head to the airport. Our plane leaves at 8:00am for Chongqing, and then Tuesday afternoon we will get our babies! (yeah)
Countdown to Savannah: 3 days
P.S. Jordan and Tannor, We hope you are having a good time with Pa Pa and Carolyn. We love and miss you very much and we can't wait to get back home to see you!!!
