China Part 1

We took a family trip to Beijing, China for Spring Break this year. It was only a two and a half hour flight from where we are and so it didn't seem like a long flight. We were surprised at how easy it was for us to get around and find out where and how to get places. We started our first afternoon just figuring out where we were and walked around to find our how close we really were to a few of the tourist places. We really were about a five minute walk to the Fobidden City and Tiannemen Square. We were bombarded by people trying to set up tours with us and tryinng to get us to buy things. We really were unconfortable with how the vendors would just hand things to the boys and then ask us to purchase them for the boys. At one time we even had vendors who opened a package to play a game with the boys and then when we wouldn't buy it they became angry as we walked away. On our first full day in Beijing we decided to visit The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. It was very easy to find and we learned so much from our visit. We decided to take a private tour with a tour guide as we got there and were so glad that we did. We would have been so lost with all of te people, and never learned a thing. Our tour guide was so knowledgeable about the City that she was able to explain quite a bit to us. We were told that on avereage there are 60,000 people who visit the city each day and to say that it was crouded is an understatement. The Forbidden City was a place of education in the art of calligraphy. And the only people allowed in the city were from the Emporer's invatation. Including all of the girlfriends who would just sit and wait to have a visit with the Emperer. The large pots that the boys are standing next to are water pots that were used to catch rain water and were used to put out any fires that had broken out with all of the wood that was in the city. The lions are also a reprensation of the roles of men and women. The lion with a baby under its paw the the lion for women and it represents that this is the women's rolde to rear the children. The lion with a ball under its paw represents the man's role to rule and guide the family and protect it. We were even able to be introduced to the Last Emporer's nephew who still volunteers his time evey once in a while as a calligropher in the the city. We then crossed under a busy street outside of the Forbidden City to Tiananmen Square whre the boys got bombarded by people who wanted to take a picture with them. And it wasn't just one picture. Each person who was with the person there wanted a picture. In the process we decided to start taking pictures of the people there wanting pictures of the boys. We told the boys that they didn't have to have their picture taken if they din't want to, but we did find that if we stopped too long they would be stopped to take pictures. So there were times who one of the boys just didn't want to have a picture taken, so the other would go alone. >