Trip to Beijing

Our trip to Beijing was really fun. It almost seems surreal because we packed so much into the trip and before we knew it 3 days had gone by and we were home again.

We got there Thursday night at about 8:00pm. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Central Plaza mainly because they have an all you can eat American breakfast buffet. We knew the kids weren't going to go for a Chinese breakfast. It ended up being a wise choice. Thursday night was only interrupted twice by disoriented children, to whom Chris was totally oblivous, but for the most part it was fine.

Day 1 Friday

We got up, got ready, and headed down to breakfast. We stuffed ourselves silly on all the pastries, french toast, eggs, and juices that we found great joy in mixing. A few days before arriving in Beijing I had arranged with the Hotel for a driver and a tour guide for both days we were there. After breakfast, we met our tour guide, Cindy, in the Lobby and off we went. The day was perfectly overcast and cool and the van was nice and roomy. It's a good thing cause it took about 2 hours to get to where we were going with all the traffic.

The first place we went was the Ming tombs. The Ming dynasty, mainly emperor Zhu Di, was responsible for building most of the Great Wall, and also building the entire Forbidden City. It was a really fun place with beautiful buildings. We also stopped to take some family pictures in the traditional imperial clothes. The kids weren't too excited about it but once they got into the clothes they really got into it. Ironically, they didn't have enough girl clothes so we had to dress Sara in a boy's outfit. If any of you have been following the blog, you know how funny that is.

After the Ming Tombs, we had lunch over at a jade factory. We got to see how they make jade carvings and got a quick lesson on how to tell real jade from the fake stuff. The kids couldn't care less cause they were starving so we told the guy giving the little jade tour, thanks but that was going to have to be it.

There was a resturant above the factory so we went upand got a table and had a great traditional lunch with the very popular Lazy Susan in the middle. I don't think a set of dishes has ever been spun around so many times in one lunch. Anna kept asking for tea in her tea cup so we just filled it with Sprite and let her go at it. Once we were done, we walked around the Jade factory show room simply amazed at all the jade carvings (the prices were pretty amazing too, if ya know what I mean) It was obvious that this place was popular with tour guides cause there happened to be a lot of foreigners there.

After all that, it was time to hit the road again, this time to the Great wall. Now keep in mind this day is the equivalent of the American Labor day, so the traffic was once again horrendous. It took about another hour and 1/2 to get to the Great Wall. There are 1.3 billion people in China. I think the entire .3 billion people decided to visit the Great Wall that day. (it was like they heard Michelle Obama was showing off her spring wardrobe there) It felt like some sort of Mecca. As we made our way up the road in the car there was just an endless stream of people leaving from and going towards the entrance walking on the side of the road. It was really an incredible sight.

Our van was able to park at the top right by the entrance. We decided that instead of walking up the entire section of the wall, we would take the gondola up 2/3 of the way and then walk the rest. Surprisingly, the line for the gondola wasn't long at all. We hopped on and up we went. It's a pretty steep climb and Gabe didn't appreciate it at all. He was pretty freaked out by it. It was a short ride but not short enough. By the time we got to the top Gabe was a mess. He continued to cry seeing how high up we were and kept saying that he wanted to go down. I think the crowds didn't help the situation much.

Even though it was really crowed, climbing the Great Wall is an amazing experience. Just looking out over the hills and seeing how the wall flows over them like someone drew it there, and seeing how far it goes on and on, makes you wonder how in the world they could have built it. Our tour guide told us that the Great Wall is the biggest cemetery in the world because of all the people who died building it. She also told us that Chairman Mao said that only after climbing the Great Wall can you be considered a real hero. The kids really ate that up. We are all now heros according to Chairman Mao. May he rest in frozen slumber.

Gabe warmed up to the whole experience once Chris handed him the camera and let him take some pictures. We were able to climb happily to the top with the rest of the millions of people. Once at the top of this section, it felt like we had joined a huge party of sorts. The people there were cheering and waving and there was definitely a feeling of triumph among the crowd. It kind of made it that much more exciting.

After about 5 min and a few dozen photo opps, we decided we'd had enough of the big party and headed down. We went back down using the gondola which Gabe declared was his favorite part of the wall (go figure) We bought an empress hat for Anna that she desperately wanted, got in the van and headed back to the Hotel.

Originally, we wanted to go see the Olympic sights but we weren't allowed to go near them. Get this, Jackie Chan was giving a singing performance there and the government had closed the area to visitors. Who knew Jackie Chan could sing? Our tour guide assured us that he sings beautifully. However, our taxi driver on Sunday said his singing "is hard to listen to." We were so tired by then that we didn't really care that all we got was a drive by viewing of the bird's nest and the water cube. They sure were neat looking though.


It took over 2 hours to get back so we grabbed a quick dinner at the nearby KFC and got the kids into bed by about 8:30. After a fun filled day, the kids slept soundly without a peep all night.

Day 2 Saturday

Saturday was a pretty packed day. We met our tour guide, Lucia, at about 8:30 after stuffing ourselves once again at the breakfast buffet, and headed out. This time we stayed around town.
It took about 15 min to get to Tiananmen square. It too was soooooo packed with people. Imagine Disneyland on it's most crowed day and then times that by 3. Until you see it with your own eyes it's really hard to grasp just how many people there are in China. It is the most populated country in the world. (Shanghai is the most populated city in China with 20 million and utah has a whopping 4 million)

Our driver dropped us off and we walked through the square. I think our tour guide Lucia was going to have a nervous breakdown trying to make sure that our kids weren't going to get lost in the crowd. Chris and I were a bit nervous about that too. We made everyone hold hands at all times. We forgot the stroller back at the Hotel but it turned out to be a good thing because with that many people, it would have been of no use. I'm sure we would have ditched it somewhere eventually. Anyway, we got a quick explanation of all the government buildings surrounding Tiananmen square and then headed towards the forbidden City across the street. Chris and I decided not to tell Emily and Gabe the reason Tiananmen Square is so famous to Americans. The Chinese people don't talk about it at all and the upcoming generation for the most part doesn't even know about it. The Chinese government filters it out of the internet here. We will tell our kids some day, but for now it doesn't seem appropriate.

Getting in line to enter the Forbidden City was kind of scary. The word "bottleneck" has a whole new meaning for me. Thousands of people were trying to file into two small lines where they checked tickets. I was holding Sara and Chris and Lucia had the other kids in front of me. We were squeezed in so tight it felt like I could hardly get any air. Even though we were all squeezed that tightly, people were still trying to get past one another. I seriously thought to myself that if someone goes down right here they aren't going to ever make it back up. After a few minutes, I heard someone in English say something. I turned my head and behind me was a family from Los Vegas. They were all older and the son got right behind me and started holding people back a little saying, " Give the lady with the baby some room people." I was pretty grateful. We made it to the ticket check without major incident and once through the line, and inside the palace, it wasn't as crowded and we could go off to the side and gather ourselves.

Once we were gathered, Lucia gave us a short introduction of the palace and then we began to walk through it. Lucia was pretty good about not trying to give too much information about the different buildings because of the kids. She knew that a quick look and a few words were just enough. She did however, take us over to the part of the palace where the emperor's concubines lived. We had to let her know that the kids don't know what concubines are and unless she wanted to give a whole new kind of explanation, we should move on from there. All in all we learned some cool stuff about imperial life and I think the kids really liked it. ( the peach Popsicle half way through didn't hurt either) The palace is 600 years old and if you think about it, that is really amazing to have history like that.

For lunch Lucia took us to a really cool restaurant where we even got to have our own room. It was in a garden setting all decked out in traditional decorations. Our table had the all important tea/sprite cups and lazy susan. We even had someone come in and do some traditional singing and dancing. The food was pretty good which is always such a bonus.

After lunch we went to the Temple of Heaven. This is the place where the emperor would come and worship the god of heaven twice a year; the winter and summer solstice. The emperor would fast for 3 days and then make animal sacrifices to insure a plentiful harvest. The buildings were really cool and stuff but the main attraction was the people all around the grounds. As soon as we walked into the outer courtyard, we heard groovy Chinese music and saw people, mostly elderly people, all kicking up their heels. This one guy was like 70 and he was doing some of the best Latin dancing I've ever seen. This was just one part of the courtyard. All around people were playing music, singing, and dancing. There was one group of people playing brass instruments while people danced in front of them. Another guy had an accordion with about 8 people singing along some Chinese opera song. Towards the back of the courtyard as we were coming out of the temple area, we saw people dancing with long multicolored streamers. They handed them to the kids and Emily and Gabe went to town. Emily did the graceful flowing streamer dance while Gabe did more of the super sonic "shake the streamer to death" dance. He had a few graceful moves in there too. Anna was too embarrassed but Sara jumped in and gave it a whirl. It just felt so carefree and celebratory. We stayed there for a while taking it all in.

After we'd had our fun, the kids were anxious to get back and go swimming. We got back to the Hotel about 2:30 and Chris took the older two swimming while I took Sara and Anna back upstairs for naps. At 4:30 we headed out to an acrobat show. It was perfect because the show started at 5:15 and only lasted an hour. The kids were mesmerized by all the flipping and balancing and throwing and contorting. It was really a great show!

In honor of my dad who was the ultimate Hard Rock Cafe fan, we searched out the Hard Rock Cafe Beijing and went there for dinner. Sara entertained us all with her enthusiastic seat dancing. She really got going to some Black Crows and ZZ Top. It was a lot of fun and a great Chinese food break. I don't remember a BBQ pulled pork sandwich ever tasting so good!

After a very fun filled super packed day, we headed home and hit the hay. Once again, the kids were too worn out to even move the whole night.

Day 3 Sunday

Sunday we just took it easy. We decided to go to the 10:30 branch instead of the 8:30 am branch. We took our time eating breakfast and then getting ready for church. We went down to the lobby and asked about a taxi to take us and there happened to be a really nice taxi driver standing right there. The concierge guy helped us figure out where we were going and then told the taxi driver where to go. Getting a nice taxi driver is a hard thing to do in Beijing. We didn't get too many while we were there so it was a blessing to get this guy. It took a while to find the branch meeting place. The taxi driver even got out and asked around trying to help us. When we found it we gave him a tip and got out. He must have liked the tip cause he told Chris that he would just wait for us. I'm telling you, this guy was heaven sent cause it would have been hard for us to find a taxi back to the hotel.

The branch was really great. It seemed like there were a ton of visitors there. The row behind us was filled with ILP English teachers who were traveling in Beijing for the week. Chris and I were ILP English teachers 10 years ago and it was really fun to talk to them and go down memory lane. As far as the testimony meeting went, it was so spiritual. The first lady that got up was a visitor and shared such a sweet love of the gospel and said how she was a convert of not so many years. The second lady who was a branch member, got up and said, "I don't know if the first sister remembers but we were good friends many years ago in California when she was trying to decide which church to join." She said that she felt like Ammon, when he met up with his brethren and saw that they were still his brethren in the Lord. She expressed gratitude that the previous sister had joined the church and how happy she was for her. After she was done the two sisters met in the isle and embraced. What an amazing reunion! After all those years, to meet up in Beijing China of all places. The entire meeting was just wonderful and I'm really glad we went. That is something my dad always did when we went on vacation. He always made sure that no matter where we were, we looked up the church and attended. As you can tell, I thought a lot about my dad while in Beijing.

After church we had lunch at the hotel and then headed off to the airport. We left in plenty of time so we didn't have to run through the airport to catch our plane. (unlike our flight out there)
While we waited at the gate we got talking to a couple who were on their way to Guangzhou to pick up their adopted baby. It was their second one. We had a wonderful conversation with them about having adopted children and I was sad to have to say goodbye to them when it was time to go. We wished them well and off we went.

What an amazing trip. No one got sick, no one peed their pants, there were no blow out diapers and no total melt downs. Sara just konked out for a nap wherever, so we didn't even have to worry about naps. Now that's a successful trip. It almost doesn't seem real. The good, the bad, the crowded, the crazy, it was all just so amazing. Chris and I are looking forward to our next trip.