Tour Day!

Today was a very fun day of touring, but also very exhausting.  We went to Tienanmen Square and walked around there.  The history is fascinating.  Then we went to Forbidden City.  It is hard to grasp the magnitude of it.  Our guide told us it would take 3 days to tour the entire palace.  She said it took 14 years and one million people to build it.  We were able to see many artifacts of jade and cloisonne as well as the empress' chambers.  There are so many people touring and you sometimes have to be pushy to be able to see things. 

While we were at Tienanmen Square, a group of people wanted to take Trevor and Noah's picture.  Noah is the son of our friends who are in our same travel group.  The boys had several minutes of fame as each person in their group wanted their picture with them.  It is great for Trevor to have someone his own age on this trip.  

After Forbidden City we went to lunch at an extremely nice restaurant.  We were served several traditional Chinese dishes.  Everything is put on a lazy susan in the middle of the table and you put the items that you want on your plate as they spin by you.  Travis decided that would be a great idea for home.  I thought it was a neat experience to taste the local cuisine in such a nice atmosphere.  

After lunch we went  on the Hutong tour.  This is the oldest part of Beijing.  The houses are very small and they have to use a public washroom.  The Hutongs are now protected by the government after many were destroyed to build apartments or businesses.  We went to the home of a very nice lady who welcomed us in and talked with us.  Her husband is an artist and creates beautiful paintings.  We rode in a rickshaw to this area and then back to our starting point.  That was also a really cool experience.  It was a true taste of Chinese culture.

Later we went to a silk factory.  Trevor got an outfit and I bought Katie a couple of dresses.  It was so interesting to learn about how the silk is made.  Tomorrow we will go to the Great Wall, so we are all going to get a good night's rest.