Led by our 2 fearless guides, Cecelia and Alice, we first toured Tiananmen Square, and then the forbidden city. Alice told us that because of the May 1-3 holiday (which she called Labor Day) there were many more people in the city, and these sites we were seeing would be desperately crowded. Also she warned us that people who traveled here from other parts of China may not have seen westerners before, or not in such numbers (about 20 people). These people may ask to take pictures with us, and we didn't have to oblige, but if we didn't mind the people would really appreciate it. I was the first one singled out to have her picture taken with someone from the crowd. The family I posed with thought it was hilarious, and so did the rest of my group, until more of them were tapped for their own moments of fame. All day while we were in the midst of the crowds, people stared, took pictures of our group, or asked for individual pictures with members of the group. Most popular was one of the teenaged daughters of a couple in our group, but I was in my fair share of photos. Someone remarked that it must be my blonde hair. (Insert your favorite blonde joke here).
The history was amazing and I could listen to Alice tell stories of the Forbidden City all day long. The morning started out chilly, but the longer we walked, the wind died down and it became downright hot. I have a minor sunburn to prove it! We walked and toured for about 2.5 hours, and just when we were all ready to perish from sore feet, we stopped and took a rickshaw tour of the Hutong area in Beijing, originally settled by Mongolians, and then stopped to dine with a local family for lunch. The rickshaws wound through the narrow alleys and pathways, and we had the best view of life in this part of the city. The family that we ate with prepared a wonderful meal. I had rice, pork meatballs, & chicken on the bone (like small drumsticks). Others enjoyed a celery dish, a cauliflower dish, steamed garlic shoots, spicy cabbage, roasted peanuts with chili peppers, pork dumplings ... Maybe more but that's all I can remember.
About 3 pm we rode the tour bus to the silk factory and watched a demonstration of how silk is harvested, and then manufactured into bed linens and clothes. I won't go into the details other than to say that silk worm cocoons with 1 larvae inside are used for clothing and silk worm cocoons with 2 larvae (twins) inside are used for bed linens.
Since our return from the factory, we have had free time. Mom and I settled into our room more and then went to eat at the noodle restaurant next to the hotel for dinner with another couple from our group. The portion sizes were huge, for everything including the beer! The couple we were with had ordered a beer, and the waitress brought him what looked like a 40 oz bottle or thereabouts. One noodle bowl could easily have easily fed our entire table, so at least it was proportionate.
The jet lag that I was concerned would be debilitating hasn't bothered us too badly. It's 8:30 pm and mom is ready for bed but I will stay up for a while yet in hopes I won't wake up before my alarm at 6 am. We slept on the plane coming over for what felt like night on the east coast, and woke up about 7 am ET. We then landed in Beijing and headed to bed for the night at 1 am local time, which felt like 1 pm ET.
Tomorrow we climb the Great Wall, and Sunday we fly to Henan province!
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