Day nine cont

Exciting update! Troy lost his front tooth today! We are debating whether the tooth fairy will give him yuan or US Dollars, I am thinking yuan, we will see :)

Day nine

Today was a fabulous day! We started out driving by the Olympic Village, we saw the Birds Nest, the Water Cube, the torch and a really cool dragon building nearby. Then we drove to the Summer Palace, which was just beautiful. It ranks up there with one of my favorite places. We took a boat ride on a dragon boat, that Troy really liked. After that we went to a luncheon of Terris and walked through an art gallery. We then came home and went swimming while Terris ayi, made the most wonderful shiar biang which are vegetable filled pancakes which we are eating for dinner. Tonight Terri and I are going to a lecture on China, and Troy is going to stay and play with the kids and John. I can't believe our trip is almost over, we leave tomorrow. What an incredible once in a lifetime experience.

Day eight

On Monday we had a relaxing start to our day. We went to the pool and swam and played in the park. Terri had a meeting so we walked to a local restaurant and ordered lunch, then Troy and I walked around Beijing, and strolled down a pretty canal near her apartment. Later that night Troy and I hired a car and went to a Kung Fu Master show at the Red Theater. "it was awesome"! I am really glad we went to show, it was impressive!

Day Seven

Yesterday we went to Bublicious! OMG! This was the most decadent meal I have ever had, bigger than even the most outrageous buffets in Las Vegas. You arrive and they give you champagne, and continue to pour until you can drink no more. There was a room the size of a giant candy store with the most wonderful desserts, candy, cupcakes, creme brûlée, tarts, crumbles, on and on. They have roast meats, Thai, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, American, incredible fresh seafood, it went on and on. Terri was truly in heaven with her champagne, popcorn and cotton candy, all at the same time :) After brunch we went for a foot and shoulder massage which was amazing. We are living a life of luxury. After that we went to Jin Shang park which is where the Chinese go and sing songs, play musical instruments, play hackie sack, dance, debate, and meet with friends. There was a large hill which we climbed and a beautiful view of the sun setting and the Forbidden City. Troy said " then we came back to the apartment and ate some more and had a really good dinner. Then we went to bed. We had a fabulous day!"

Day six

Troy said "we went out for breakfast and there were cats and dogs in the courtyard. After that we went to the dirt market called pan ji yuang. Next we went to the Temple of Heaven. There was a wall there that if you knock on it someone on the other side could hear the noise. But we couldn't because it was really noisy. John and me and Tyler came back to the apartment to play pool. After that we played ping pong. After that we went to a really big party. I dressed up as the emporer. There was a lot of people. There was a candy apple where they melted sugar around the crab apples and put them on a stick. They put up a big freezy ice scupture to keep the drinks fresh. It was really cool. There were lots of performers. They had a pole spinning on their back and arms with no protection and it kept spinning. After that we came home and went to bed." We had a craving for western food so went to Grandma's restaurant. Troy had pancakes and I had a breakfast burrito. Funny to come all the way to china for a breakfast burrito, it was really good.. The dirt market was amazing, it is essentially a flea market with a combination of really really old stuff, even things from the cultural revolution. I bought an old book of Mao's poems. There is also a lot of stuff that looks old and is fake. The Temple of Heaven was beautiful, it was surrounded by a huge park that had 800 yr old cypresses. After that Terri and I went for a Chinese massage, it was incredible, truly a treat. We all came back and got ready for the party at Embassy House, it was amazing fun. Food from around the world, live music, ice sculptures, performers, etc. Everyone was encouraged to dress in 1930s Chinese clothes. Troy dressed as the emporer. They had a photographer there and we all had our picture taken dressed up in Chinese clothes. It was a lot of fun!

Day five

Today was amazing, we went to the Great Wall of China. We left early, packed a lunch and drove to Jin Shang a part of the wall about two hours from Beijing. "it was really fun, there are many sections to the wall, it is not one wall". It was a beautiful fall day and the colors had started changing. The wall is not flat, the entire wall is a series of steps going up and down the tops of the mountain range. The portion of the wall we went to is about 650 years old. We hiked for several hours it was a great workout. After that we came home and Sophie, Terri's family's ayi, showed us how to make jiao ze, potstickers. We made and cooked two different kinds, pork and a vegetable for dinner. They were amazing.

Day four

Today was another fun day in Beijing! We walked around the city for much of the day. We started out at the "wet market" which is the market where the Chinese buy their meat and produce. There were live fish that people would buy alive and take home for fresh fish dinner! There were all kinds of strange meats and insects for purchase. The produce looked great, many different kinds. We bought Troy some sugarcane which he really liked and he picked out some candies. After that we walked around the embassy district and then had coffee and pastries at a French bakery. We went to ya shou market. When you buy things you have to bargain, hard. It is ridiculous, they start at 600 yuan and you offer 50 and you negotiate from there...usually negotiating in Chinese. Needless to say I was not a good negotiator. We had lunch at a really good Mediterranean place and ate falafel, hummus and mint lemonades. It was wonderful, we had a very cosmopolitan day. Tomorrow we are hiking the Great Wall of Cina, we are both really looking forward to it!

Day three

Troy said " We went up a long way to see a humongous bell at the Bell Tower in Beijing. After that we went to a building that took a long time to get up to the top. We got to see a lot of people playing drums at the drum tower. After that we went to a tea service and tried lots of different kinds of teas. My favorite was a fruit tea. All of the teas were really good. After that we went to the Lama Temple where there were big statues of Buddah's. There were a lot of people who were praying a burning incense, it was really smokey. For dinner we had lots of yummy Chinese food. There were potato balls that were really tasty.after dinner we went to Terri's apartment then we made paper airplanes." Natalie - we had a great day, the drummers at the drum tower were amazing. We all really enjoyed the tea service. We learned a lot about the different types of teas. The Lama Temple was amazing. This is where the Panchen Lama will go when in Beijing. It was beautiful and a very spiritual place. We had lunch at Pizza Hut! It is very different than back home, you can get octopus, and other seafood, along with pizza. Tonights dinner was excellent, the food was from the Hunan Provence, very different than American Chinese food. We had eggs with jasmine flowers, ground pork wrapped in banana leaves, beef wrapped mint leaves with peppers, potato balls, fried cheese, and hai cai, which are flower stems thinly sliced.

Day two

Troy said "we went on two tours, they were fun. We went to the Palace Museum (Forbidden City) and we went to a good house that belonged to lady Zhou. She lived in a hutong and had two turtles. The other houses looked very messy inside. There was a little boy who was the Last Emperor and he had a dragon on his shirt and no one else could wear the dragon, but that is no longer the case. He had lots of buildings for himself. He had more than one bed. He had lots of thrones.one of the rooms had a pearl on the top and the boy was afraid it would fall on top of him. So a man who sat in the chair after the last emperor moved the chair so the pearl would not crush him. The last emperor killed himself by a tree. There was 9,999 rooms in the Forbidden City. There is a KFC. There was a man who lost arm by a fire. There was a man who had a big big lump in his back and there was a kid who didn't have joints." We went on a tour yesterday of a local hutong that as an old courtyard home that has four residences around an open courtyard. We went into Lady Zhous home and she served us tea and talked to us about her life in the hutong. We took a pedicab ride to her home and then walked around the hutong and did some shopping. We then went to Tianamen Square and walked by Maos mausoleum and then headed over to the Forbidden City. Once inside the gates we had lunch and then toured the grounds. It was amazing and immense, there truly were 9,999 rooms. We walked by a a family community park where the old people exercised and the children played and people played mahjong. It was really neat to watch. We came back and went swimming and sat in the hot tub. It was a great day!

We are at the beautiful new Sacramento airport having coffee at Old Soul! Unfortunately our flight to seattle was cancelled so we rebooked on another flight. Fortunately, we can still make our connecting flight to Beijing. We are on our way :)

Our itinerary is pretty well set. The first week we will be going to the Forbidden City, Tiannamen Square and the Great Wall.

Getting ready for our trip

We are very excited for our upcoming trip to Beijing, China. Our passports and visas are ready, tickets are purchased, a few more things to buy, and we are off! We leave Saturday morning and will arrive in Beijing on Sunday. All that is left to do now is pack!