Just Another Day in Beijing

What a day. Friday was packed full of activities. We started with breakfast buffet at the hotel (I had, among other things, a bowl of congee, a kind of rice porridge that Emma probably knows very well; not bad, especially when you top it with some chopped veggies). At 9:00 a.m. our group met Chen in the lobby and we walked over to Tiananmen Square (just a few blocks away)...huge open space...and then on to the Forbidden City, which abuts the square. Let's see how much I can remember of Chen's excellent commentary... The Forbidden City was built in the 15th century and was home to a series of emperors for more than 500 years (and was indeed off limits to the common folk -- it was open publicly in 1925, I believe). Anyway, it is indeed vast....a series of open spaces and buildings and courtyards and stairs and chipping cobblestones. We were there with about 20,000 of our closest friends. We did not go in any of the buildings but looked through some of the windows (Chen pointed out one area that was the royal concubines' quarters).

After the Forbidden City we hopped on a big blue tour bus and made a short stop at a silk factory; enjoyed a brief demonstration of how silk is gleaned from the cocoons of silk worms (which eat the leaves of mulberry trees excusively) and turned into thread and then fabric.

Then came the most fascinating part of the tour. We visited the Hutong area of old Beijing, an area of tiny little allies lined with small courtyard homes where families would live for generations. Lots of these quaint areas have been lost in recent years in Beijing's booming building expansion, but I believe certain areas have now been protected for historical purposes. Our guide had arranged for us to have lunch with a local family in this area, so we filed in to a tiny home and were served an unbelievable array of scrumptious dishes by a dear smiling woman (all we could say was "xie xie" -- thank you -- to her). She kept bringing out plate after plate of food -- great vegetable dishes in yummy sauces, spicy potatoes and meat, pickled radish, tender little shrimp dumplings, mushrooms in plum sauce, some kind of tasty green beans, rice and more rice. We'd been advised by Chen to clean our plates and we all (eight fully grown humans) gave it our very best shot. My personal goal was to eat as many of the little dumplings as possible. But when the stream of little round plates filled with steaming Chinese goodness did not abate, we finally had to announce that we could eat no more. What a meal. It's more than 12 hours later and I'm still full.

After lunch, we piled on bicycle-powered rickshaws and our drivers took us on a Hutong tour. The rickshaw drivers deserve a special place in heaven for hauling our hefty American behinds through the narrow streets of old Beijing (reminds me of the time Joe and I visited Las Vegas and took a rickshaw ride down the main drag; when it was over I chirped to the driver "Thanks, that was very pleasant," and he said, "Yeah, for YOU.") Anyway, this tour was fascinating. We were in a different world...another planet. The alleys are so narrow and filled with people going about their lives. We saw lots of little produce markets, old men squatting down playing board games, guys hauling big carts of sticks down the street, children running around, elderly women strolling down the street and observing the American parade with a jaundiced eye. The colors were kind of green and gray, the light seemed diffuse, there were ancient, gnarly looking trees that had sprung up in a dry patch of dirt and seemed melded to the cobblestones. And there were no traffic sounds -- sounds seemed suspended quietly in the air; the sounds of people going about their day. I LOVED it.

We thought we might be done after the rickshaw experience, but not so fast. Climbed on another big blue bus that drove us across town to an Acrobat Theatre where we were treated to a startling 60-minute display of impressively flexible Chinese youth contorting their limbs in ways that made us say "I didn't know you could do that". Then they'd construct elaborate human towers with people linked up all which a way with someone standing on a board that's balanced by a ball that's on the head of somebody else who's holding a horizontal girl in the palm of each hand and still able to catch a series of bowls on his head that are catapulted off the end of another board balanced on a bowl. It was super impressive but we were all so tired by then that all we could manage were anemic little golf claps.

After the acrobat show we piled on big blue again and made fitful progress back to our hotel in late rush-hour traffic. Much honking, many jockeyings for vehicle supremacy, a thrilling burst of speed for half a block, then back to waiting at a long traffic light and maneuvering the rig into just the right jaunty angle to nudge away the pesky auto at our right flank so that we can bust free and enjoy 10 seconds of unfettered forward motion.

Our eyes were glazed over and comments were taking on a terse quality. We were bushed! Got back to the hotel about 7:15, said wan goodnights, and we were flopped on our nice hard beds by 7:30. We had wanted to stay up later, sure, that was the plan. But we were tapped of energy. Slept until 12:30 a.m. and then...peepers popped! Alert! Rarin' to go! So here we are blogging about our day in Beijing. We're having trouble posting some of our photos for some reason; we'll try to add more (because we've got some great ones). The one above is a black and white Joe took of some of the walls in the Forbidden City.

Our traveling companions are wonderful folks --Sheila and John, Patty and Todd, and Paul and Staci. We're all in roughly the same age range; Joe and I are the senior members of the team, but not by much. Two of the families who are adopting have children, but none younger than 16. Staci is going to be a first-time mom like me. They are all congenial and good and we've enjoyed talking about this great adventure as it unfolds before us. There's lots of talk about "our babies" -- When we get "our babies," After we get "our babies", It will be more fun to shop when we have "our babies." Three of the girls are from the same orphanage and have similar names, Qi Jia Yan, Qi Jia Tian, and Qi Jia Li. We compared notes about the growth and development reports we'd received for these girls; I was curious if they described their personalities similarly or not, but there were several diferences. One of the girls had been described as "obstinate," another as "happy, likes to laugh and loves music." One of them "likes to watch TV" like Emma. We've pledged to stay in touch so that our girls can have a link to this unique chapter in their lives.

Well, I'm gonna try to catch a few hours of sleep before we're off to the GWo'C today. As my friend Kristen commented, this will be a great way to walk off those airplane kinks!

We'll fill you in later -- thanks for following our trip. We love you!

Denny
P.S.: Did I mention that in two days we'll be in the same room with Emma?