Jacob's Thoughts on Beijing and His First Day in Guangzhou

Boy, Beijing is HUGE!!!!

The hotel lobby was very nice,but the rooms were not-so-nice. The lobby had a grand piano, stage, several stores for shopping, and a nice resturaunt. The resturaunt had a rather large breakfast (and nice) bar. However, our room looked like one from any inexpensive hotel in the States.

I had one rather painfull misunderstanding of the Great Wall: I thought it was going to be steep, but not very lengthy [Dad's note: I think we need to teach him a little more on Chinese geography and history!] ...Instead it length seemed to go on forever, AND it was very steep too in places! We reached the highest point of the Beijing section of the Wall and were tired from the hike. What made it especially difficult was that Beijing had just had a major snow storm a few days earlier and most of the Wall's steps were covered with a thick layer of snow and ice. At the top we were able to get our names ingraved on small plaques stating that we made it to the highest point in Beijing.

After the wall, we ate an authentic Chinese meal which was excellent (but some of flavors were quite unusual!).
After lunch we went to a family's house on Hutong Lane. Their entire family (4 generations) lived within a courtyard that was more than 200 years old. Within the courtyard were very old single story rooms (some connected by common walls). I thought that this would be a great way to live since my cousin Zachery would live with us too!

We visited the Temple of Heaven next. This was a place that the emperor burnt offerings to the gods and ancesters (I think.)

We were very tired by this point and went back to the hotel and straight to bed. The next day we packed, ate breakfast, and then headed to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City. Tianamen Square wasn't very interesting (although Dad sure thought it was for some historical reason - I probably should have been listening to our guide more about this!) but the Forbidden City was amazing.

The Forbidden City is more than 500 years old and was the place where the Emporer and his family lived. The Forbidden City had really cool statues, engravings, and buildings.

We had lunch at a downtown Beijing resturant that also served very authentic Chinese food. The food was different, but good. some was kind of weird, but most of it tasted fine. The soy sauce was much thicker (almost like a paste) and wasn't very yummy.

After lunch we headed to the airport and after getting our luggage checked in, flew to Guangzhou.

This morning after breakfast, we walked to the White Swan Hotel were Dad stayed when he got Hope. He showed me the inside waterfall and some very interesting Monk statues! While at the White Swan we ran into a fellow Huntsville couple we know from the Huntsville Children from China support group who were there adopting a little girl. The little girl was very cute and gave Dad a "High 5".

So here I am now, waiting in our hotel for the phone call to tell us it is time to get Will. I can't wait!

Jacob