Day 1 - Beijing Tour Day

Wow, our first full day in China was amazing.   We started off meeting up with the other families that will be with us in Beijing and Guangzhou (they will travel to different provinces to get their girls); a total of 5 families in all.  What a vary of people - for one couple, this will be their first child.  For another couple this is their second child from China; they have a 4 year old girl and are adopting a 4 year old girl.  Another family has 3 bio children ages 16-26 and a 6 month old granddaughter and are adopting a 2 year old and then Kim's family has two biological children and this will be their first adoption.  I wanted to include their stories because when I started our adoption process, I thought most everyone would have a similar story as ours - no children, unable to get pregnant, but no, there are so many wonderful families who choose adoption for so many wonderful reason.  We have a great group and I imagine I will be friends with them for a long time after this experience.

First we went to the district of Hutong, "Old Beijing",  to see the old houses that surrounded the Forbidden City and got the chance to go through a home that the family has lived in for 5 generations.  To get there we all got in rickshaws (now bikes, not running men) for the ride.  What a cool little experience.

Our guide George discribed how you could tell a famiy's status and the man's job by the exterier of the home.  The doorway to the home had beams over the door, a specific number of steps up, and a small stone figure by the door, either round or square that symbolized all of these things.  He also shared how children had to marry into similar families.  For example, a boy from a home with three steps to the door had to marry a girl from a home with three steps to the door.  And every thing had to balance, very fang shui, evens and odds had to match up such as the steps compared to the posts.  Very complex!

George our CCAI guide

We loved George!  He really made our short stay in Beijing a very special one.  He kept calling my mom "Mom" because he said that she reminded him of him mom!  He said right away that she looked like his mom...really! :-)  He was so sweet and funny.  He always had a smile on his face.  He would gather our travel group by calling out "sticky rice" to have us stick together...and we were all white!  It was so funny to hear all the chinese chatter and then we would hear "sticky rice" and we knew to keep up.  He also talked about the awful traffic in Beijing (and it was awful!) and how he would debate if he should take the bus/subway or drive and whichever he did, he regretted and wish he'd done the other.  But how he told the story I would be cracking up!  He said sometimes his wife would just get out of the car and head for the subway, get home before him and have dinner ready!

Next, we went to the silk factory where we learned how silk is made and watched the interesting process of making double cocoon silk comforters (the silk is the inside "fluff" part).  Really interesting.  Then we went to eat lunch in a wonderful restaurant.  The food was shared on a big lazy susan for a table of 10.  Everything was delicious!  It is very interesting how everyone shares food in China.  It's so cultural to share all the food with others.

After lunch we went through Tainanmen Square and into the Forbidden City.  We had heard about Chinese staring at Americans and especially blondes but it's hard to understand until it happens.  People would come up to mom and gesture that they wanted their picture with her!  And then there would actually be a short line as people waited their turn.  There was a beautiful 16 year old blonde in our group and at one point George had to break up the crowd and basically rescue her!  The square itself was so huge.  It was crazy to think about this was where the demonstrations took place back in 1989.  There is so much history here but this is history we watched live on tv.  I was in college at the time and was in a cultural class called Life in China.  What timing that this took place while I was in that class.  Next we headed into the Forbidden City.  Really no words can describe how grand this place is.  I have heard but until you are there and see how it goes on and on, it really is hard to describe.  These buildings are amazing and you could easily spend a few days going through it all.  I knew that several emperors ruled from the Forbidden City but I assumed that is was added to over the centuries but I learned that one emperor built the entire thing over 14 years.  The detail in the buildings is amazing.  It is also very balanced in the design.  No women could enter through the main gate unless the empress on her wedding day.  No men were allowed in the women's grounds except eunuchs and no women were allowed in the inner courts.  The buildings are all wooden and there are huge iron vats around the grounds that would hold water in the event of a fire.

Mom deserves a big kiss for coming half way around the world with me!  

We were then taken to a Chinese acrobat show which was entertaining.  But honestly I was so exhausted by this point I dosed off several times.  I could have happily skipped this part but it wasn't an option as part of the tour.  When we got back to the hotel, we were exhausted but we took a short walk along some local streets.  That was entertaining in itself!  There were people playing music and dancing in the street for no apparent reason.  We laughed until we were silly!  Mom and I had a fantastic first day and it's only the beginning.