We're Here in Beijing!!

What a journey it has been. If you looked at our itinerary below, we left early from RDU to fly to Newark on Sunday March 15, 2009. We arrived in Beijing on Monday at 2 pm, having flown from Newark on a 14 hour flight--and Lydia Grace only slept one hour. Need I say more? She has been a fabulous traveler, though a little tired. She was given special children's meals and seemed overall happy with the trip. We all went to bed around 5:30 pm on Monday (that's why there was not a post) and have been on the go all day today, for 10 hours, packing a lot into our Beijing tour. Lydia woke up Monday at 11:30 pm, and never went back to sleep. Art and I separately got a little more sleep, but not much. None the less, we had great energy for Beijing and Lydia got in a little nap in the car on the way to The Great Wall. Our guide Angela and driver have been wonderful.

We went to a part of The Great Wall that most tourists do not see--Mutianyu. We took an exciting cable car ride to the top and had amazing views of one of the 7 Wonders of the World. It's hard to explain what it's like to be there, so different in scope than just looking at pictures. The views are breathtaking, and we were able to get some good photos, even with the infamous Chinese smog. A most pleasant surprise was the weather, 74 degrees, a real treat in March, with a similar forecast for tomorrow. I think Lydia's favorite part was the tobaggan ride down the mountain. We rode on small sleds down a metal shoot, with a brake control. Mama was initially a little "hai pa" (afraid), but not Lydia! She rode in front of Art and was "the brake girl" and did a marvelous job. She announced that this was the best thing we did today. Happily we only saw the remnants of a recent snow, and didn't experience this first hand.

Angela and our driver then took us to a lunch feast--so many good things. Sweet and sour pork, boiled dumplings, a bok choy platter, kung pao chicken, rice, noodles, a "haystack" of thread thin potatoes deep fried and stacked to look like a haystack (Angela called them Chinese french fries), a bean sprout dish and pumpkin cakes for dessert. We were stuffed and there was enough food leftover for another whole feast. We then spent much of the afternoon at the Summer Palace, touring and taking pictures. Lydia had a tao bing bang (peach popsicle) to refresh and recharge her batteries. Off in the car again to The Silk Factory. We saw how silk is made from the moths to the eggs, pupae, larvae, and finally into the caterpillars in their silk cocoons. We saw how silk was spun and we made many silk purchases. An interesting data bit--100% silk items are washed in shampoo, not laundry detergent. As silk is protein, you would wash and care for it the same way you would your hair--who knew? Not Art.

After a quick Pizza Hut pizza in our room, not bad by the way, we tried to make a blog post. Several helpers later, we had to switch rooms as we had power issues. Voila--we can now post. Lydia is in bed reading her newest Magic Treehouse Book--Day of The Dragon King, about a magical trip to China, that she is experiencing first hand. Tomorrow we see Tian An Men Square, Forbidden City and Hutong Tour before our flight to Changsha. We'll post photos as we can.