Beijing, Day 4 (Thursday, July 28, 2011)

We were up at on the bus again this morning at 8 am!  This morning we are headed for the Summer Palace.  I've never been there and really looking forward to it.  The Summer Palace is the last palace built by the Qing Dynasty (Empress CiXi).  It is very beautiful, with a lake, shady trees, and several pavilions.  There were people playing various musical instruments in one of the pavilions and people sat around to listen.  We walked around the lake on one side and rode a dragon boat back to the beginning of the park.  Once again, we were surrounded by vendors, selling the usual stuff.  This time, I finally broke down and bought a Mao watch.  Who could resist when they only wanted 30 RMB (approx $5.00)?  Fans were another big seller, but the girls already had one.

There were some old men writing Chinese characters with a big calligraphy brush on the slate walkways.  They offered the brushes to the girls to to try their hand at it.  Several of the older girls wrote some characters on the slate.  Sarah got up her nerve and wrote her Chinese name on the sidewalk.  It was very beautiful and the man was very happy to see her work!  She received many compliments on her beautiful handwriting!

After the Summer Palace it was off to the bus and to another group lunch!  This time, a Thai restaurant!  Once again, family style, lazy susan in the middle of the table, way too much food and not enough cold beverages!   After lunch, it was off to CCCWA and BLAS to meet some of the people that worked on our adoption files, maybe even matched Samantha and me!

Beijing, Day 3 (Wednesday, July 27, 2011)

Today is the big day!  Our official visit to the Great Hall of the People!  We had special ID cards and invitations to get in the building.  We had to wear our special t-shirts for a group photo.  The photo was taken with at least 2 cameras, moving, so make a panoramic pic.  We had to stand still for several seconds while the cameras moved from left to right!  They had us lined up on bleachers like glee club.  Adults on the top 3 rows, kids over 10 on the bottom row, Chinese officials in chairs on the floor, kids under 10 on the floor in front of the officials.

We had about 1 hour of speeches from the CCCWA, BLAS, and the American Embassy.  We also had a parent representative and an adopted child representative to speak.  The Chinese officials gave the child representative a certificate and a stuffed panda.  They announced that all of the kids would receive a gift from the CCCWA.  Later, on our bus, the kids all got pandas and certificates!  It was great!

After the ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, we walked across the street to Tian'anmen Square.  Believe it or not, directly across from the Great Hall.  Vendors galore!  They were selling everything!  Mao watches, kites, books, photos, etc.  We had our group photo taken with the Forbidden City in the background for another souvenir book.  Samantha and I bought one last time, but this one had the Olympic sites in it, so I decided to buy a current book.  It was 100 yuan (about $17).  Now each girl will have one.   The Forbidden City is across the street from Tian'anmen Square, so it was our day to walk!  It was hot once again and I had on a t-shirt that was at least one size, maybe 2 sizes too small.  I was miserable.  We walked straight through the Forbidden City (seems like forever) - there are supposedly 9,999 rooms there.  This was the Emperor's private residence; he and his concubines, children and posse hung out here away from the subjects.  Last time we were told that it would take you xx years to go into one per day.  I don't remember how many years but it was a lot!  We did not have time to go to any of the buildings on this trip, we just walked from one end to the other so that we could get back on the bus.

It was so hot and the melon slices looked so good!  We had to keep moving to keep up with the group, so no one was able to try this but it did look delicious!

Back on the bus and over to the Hutong for a tour and lunch.  The Hutongs are older, residential areas of Beijing based on quadrangles.  Before the revolution, families owned the quadrangles - there were 4 buildings and a courtyard; daughters lived on one side, grown children on the other.  The quadrangles were all grouped together into a huge neighborhood.  During the Cultural Revolution, the government took over the houses and reassigned occupants.  Today, the families of owners before the CR have been able to return and regain at least part of their homes.  We rode in pedicabs (bicycle type rickshaws) through the Hutong and had lunch at one of the houses.  The owner said that his family had been in that location for several generations (displaced during the CR).  He now serves meals for tour groups in his residence.  They had put 4 large tables in what looked like his living room.  We had tiny stools to sit on, no chairs since we had to fit 10 people at each table.  The food was really very good.  The best we had so far in Beijing.

After the Hutong tour, we got back on the bus and traveled to a Silk Factory somewhere in Beijing.  I think it was near the Olympic Village.  We saw how silk is made and then saw the results!  Lots of beautiful things were available, bed spreads, pillows, bed coverings, clothing, purses, scarves, everything!  We bought a couple of things and headed out.  The girls wanted to buy some stuffed animals but I drew the line on those after the last yard sale that we had.  All those animals end up going to new homes for a lot less money than they cost!  The girls refused to even look at silk dresses, so we got back on the bus.

Next stop, group dinner, Beijing Roast Duck!

So, I've never had duck before; I have a rule that I don't eat anything that I might find in my back yard, but I decided to make an exception since this is likely my last trip to China.  The slices of duck were brought to the table (no head), along with very thin, tortilla like pancakes.  We also were given sliced cucumber and shredded cabbage to go with it.  You are supposed to take the pancake, grab a couple of slices of duck, dip it into the sauce, put the meat on the pancake, layer on cucumbers and cabbage and roll it up like a burrito and eat!  It was not bad, but I could not really taste the duck.  It mostly tasted like the sauce.  A sweet, dark, almost barbeque sauce.  Anyway, they brought out the usual other stuff too; lots of rice, noodles, chicken and veggies.  The usual drinks appeared on the tables, bottled water, beer, Coke and Sprite.  Again, no ice and the drinks were usually room temperature.

After dinner, back to the bus and finally, back to the hotel!  We're all dead tired and one more long day in Beijing to go!  Had to get to bed so that we could be down at the bus at 8 am the next morning.  By now the girls are begging to sleep in!  Sorry, no time to rest.

Beijing, Day 2 (Tuesday, July 26, 2011)

The Dumplings were down stairs having breakfast with the early risers on Tuesday, July 26, in order to be at the bus by 9 am.  This was our Great Wall day!  We had about an hour ride on the bus to the Great Wall outside Beijing, but first, a stop at the Jade factory.

Back in 2006, I bought jade bangles for the girls and me.  Mine still fits but the girls' have outgrown theirs. I brought the bracelets, hoping to exchange them for larger ones.  The girls had other plans.  They decided that they did not want larger bracelets, they wanted to keep the baby ones.  So, I packed them back up in my backpack and carried them all over China.

Once we got to the Great Wall, the sun was out and it was hot!  We climbed up to the first station and the girls decided that they did not want to go further.   There were vendors everywhere on the wall!  You could buy t-shirts, chops, cards, postcards, hats, almost anything.  There was a small strip mall at the bottom of the wall with food, drinks, ice cream, coffee, etc.  The place was jam packed with tourists.  We took some photos from the wall and then went back down to hang out with some of the other Dumpling families at the coffee shop (diet Coke/Coke Light/Coke Zero stop).  Two of the families ended up going to the 5th station of the wall.  I can't imagine how hard that climb was!  Sarah learned Chinese finger painting from one of the vendor artists at the Wall.

After the climbers got back to the bus, we took off for the Cloisonne Factory and lunch!  At this point, we discovered that the green vegetables that we thought were either asparagus pieces, green beens or green onions were actually garlic sprouts!  Delicious!  We had them 2 days in a row, basically prepared the same way, cut in small pieces and sauteed.

We bought a few goodies at the Cloisonne factory, then, instead of our getting to go back to the hotel to rest, we were taken directly back to Beijing, to tour the Olympic venues.  The Birdnest, Swimming pavilion and the torch area were on our tour.  There were vendors EVERYWHERE, selling watches, t-shirts, kites, Olympic souvenirs, etc.  We ended up buying a kite even though we were told to ignore the vendors and tell them we were Russian!  I couldn't help but laugh when the vendors came up with outrageous stuff for us to buy!  They had fake glasses and mustaches with streamers that shot out of the mustache.  Naturally, the girls wanted one.  I just could not go there.

After the Olympic sites, we got back on the bus and were taken to dinner at a Hot Pot restaurant.  What a disaster!  First of all, it was already HOT!  We were all hot, tired, sweaty and ready for a swim.  We got delivered to the traditional Hot Pot restaurant where at each room, there was a huge family sized table with a hot, steaming pot of broth on a burner at each place setting!  So, basically, 10 burners with 10 pots of steaming broth in a very small area.  It must have been over 120 degrees in that room.  It was just about unbearable.  There was an attempt at cooling - an air conditioner standing behind the table, however, it could make no dent in the heat in the room!  We were instructed to take pieces of the food that would be placed in the center of the table and drop it into the pot to cook; then take it out and eat it.  OK.  They started with very thin slices of beef and chicken.  It had no flavor at all.  It would cook to a gray color, then we were supposed to eat it.  Not very appealing at all.  The girls just looked at it!  Then they came around with what turned out to be shrimp paste balls.  Those were better than the meats but still, not much flavor.  At some point, they brought out potatoes, sliced very thinly, which the girls did like.  However, it took much longer to cook the potatoes than the meats, so they had to sit there and wait for the potatoes to cook before they could/would eat anything.  We got some fresh noodles, at least 2 different kinds, to cook.  Finally, because none of the children were eating anything, they brought out some french fries!  Those disappeared almost immediately!  We tried to end the dinner as quickly as possible so that we could get back to the hotel and cool off.

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.

Flight to Beijing

Left Vancouver for Beijing Saturday afternoon.  While waiting for loading, we met about 5 moms with China daughters, going to the same place we were!  We compared notes on ages, provinces, etc.  Realized that we are going to have a great time with these great people.  They are not in the same travel group as us, but we will see each other in the hotels and at some of the events.

The girls and I had 3 seats together, in the center of the plane.  The girls were happy to see tvs in the seat backs!   They watched the Justin Beiber movie, Never Say Never, and slept part of the way.  I ended up watching 3 episodes of Hawaii 5-0 and then started watching the Kennedys mini-series (with Katie Holmes as Jackie).  The Kennedys was very addictive.  I could not stop watching!  The plane started landing just about the time that Lee Harvey Oswald was setting up in the  School Book Depository.  Thankfully, I missed the assassination; living through it once was enough!  We landed in Beijing just around 4 pm Sunday afternoon, July 24, collected our luggage, went through customs and found our guide waiting for us at the end!

Nancy and William were our guides for Beijing, Nancy was the guide for the Dumpling group for the entire trip!  She works for BLAS and arranged all of our tours, etc.; William was a tour guide hired by BLAS to deal with the sites in Beijing.   We were herded onto a bus, given bottles of water, and told to relax for the drive to the hotel (approx 40 minutes).  Once on the bus, it started raining.  It rained all the way to the hotel and continued through the night and part of the next day.  We were told that it is monsoon season in China and that we would probably get rain all week.  It was very hot and humid when we arrived, much like home!

If it's Friday, we must be in Vancouver!

Had to leave San Francisco this morning for the next stop on our journey, Vancouver.  By the time we got to the hotel and dropped our stuff it was already 3 pm!  Spent the afternoon exploring the area immediately around the hotel - a small shopping center with a great supermarket and a 3 story mall across the street.  Unfortunately, no movie theaters, so we still haven't seen HP-DH2.  The interesting thing to me about this part of our trip is that we are apparently in Vancouver's Chinatown.  The grocery store had all sorts of Asian food products in addition to stuff I did recognize (like diet Coke!)  Sarah was sampling the foods that were out; Samantha refused to try anything she did not know!  At the food court, Samantha and I had burgers but Sarah had Vietnamese food (beef/noodle bowl); the lady at the counter did not want to make the soup spicy, so Sarah had to add hot sauce to it before she would eat!

Tomorrow is the never ending flight to Beijing.  We will be on the flight for 11 hours.  Just hope they've got some good movies on the plane.  I've got the Kindle charging so I'll have something to read.  The girls should be well rested and ready to hit Beijing running!

We made it to San Francisco!

We spent today riding various forms of public transportation.  BART (subway), MUNI trolley, a double decker tour bus and the free hotel shuttle (yeah, I know that one's not PT).  We saw lots of Vespas and other scooters and I'm glad I don't live in a large city!  I would definitely be one of the folks riding the Vespa instead of depending upon public transportation.  I appreciate that it is there and is cheaper than driving to work, but the waiting and the going up and down stairs to get to the stations is a killer.  Then, the car that we got on this afternoon on the subway must have been 100 degrees.  And the high in San Fran today was probably 70!

It was a gorgeous day here!  We even saw most of the Golden Gate Bridge.  We rode one of those double decker tour buses around SF and crossed over the GG Bridge.  It was unbelieveably windy!

Our flight to Vancouver got moved up so we will have to leave SF earlier than we expected.  That means no more touring.  Guess we'll have to come back out another time to get up close and personal with my favorite city.