July 25th, Beijing, Day 1

Started the day with breakfast at the hotel.  Oh boy, I'd forgotten how interesting the Chinese buffet breakfast is!  While you could find scrambled eggs and bacon (along with pork and beans, white sausage, and various other "meat,") there was cold cuts, rice congee, fruit, yogurt, several kinds of cereal, milk, juices, tea and coffee.  No diet Coke.  No drink machines of any kind.  I drank hot tea, with Splenda.  There is NO ICE.  NO ICED TEA, NO ICED DRINKS!!!!  I had the yogurt and granola for breakfast, it was cold.  Or at least cool.  The girls loved the bacon and eggs; Sarah tried and liked the congee.  It is like a very watery rice soup.  Sarah and I ate watermelon - very good, sweet and cold.  Samantha stuck with bananas.

Orientation for the Dumpling group was at 9:30 am.  Josh and Lily were there to welcome the families. The girls received tote bags to carry their goodies in, with "Home in World, Roots in China" imprinted on it.  They also received journals, fans, chopsticks, utensils, markers and luggage tags.  We all received a t-shirt with the same slogan on it; the girls got yellow and the parents got blue.  We were to wear those to the Great Hall of the People on Wednesday, for an official welcoming ceremony from the CCCWA.

The meeting wrapped up and we were herded onto the bus at 10:30 to head out to the Temple of Heaven.  I have not been to the TOH and thought it would be a pretty quick visit.  I mean we've seen the replica at Epcot - not that big, but very beautiful!  Well, the real thing is quite large!  And it doesn't just sit in the middle of Beijing - no, it's surrounded by a walled compound, very similar to the Forbidden City.  We entered through the gate at the top of the pics, then through the smaller, lighter colored gate.  There were buildings on the east and west sides, with something in the center of each square.  More gates, more buildings, until we reached the actual TOH (the one with 3 layers on the roof.)  It was a long, hot, damp morning; it drizzled off and on all morning on us!   We finally made it all the way through and to the bus.