Day 3-We Walked and We Walked

Today was more touring and all of it was on foot. We are so wiped out and our dogs our barking! (Oh, that made me miss our dogs.) We started off the day walking from the hotel to Tiannamen Square. Most of you probably remember Tiannamen from the student protests in 1989, especially from the photo of the man standing down the army tank. It is a huge public square with monuments and Mao Tse Tung's tomb. Everyone wanted to view the monument to Mao and it is a fairly long line (Chinese from the whole country come to visit Beijing everyday and all of the tourist places are always crowded). Our guide, Peter, was going to wait with all of our packs and cameras because you can't take them in. Dave and I decided not to go through the line, so Peter asked us if we would watch everything so he could go in with the group. What an experience that 1/2 hour was! First of all, not once did we feel worried or threatened that someone would try to take the bags and cameras. We had one Chinese man try to talk to us and when we finally communicated that we didn't speak Chinese he started to write in Chinese! Nope, can't do that either!

The coolest thing was when a group of hundreds of Chinese children walked past us. They must have been on some kind of school trip. Each one of them looked at us as they walked past. It lasted about 3-4 minutes. Some of them smiled, some giggled when we smiled back, some just stared, but each one looked at us. It was a strange a feeling to get that much attention. And it was also a strange feeling to be the minority race. We both commented how important it will be to remember that feeling for Emmy's sake.

We had a couple ask us to take our picture holding their daughter. When they handed her to us she started bawling. I think it was a foreshadowing of tomorrow!

When our group got back we walked around the square some more. A few people, most of them younger came up to us to talk and practice their English. Peter said that more people in Beijing our learning English because of the Olympics coming here in 2008.

We then headed over to the Forbidden City, the home of the emperors built in the 1400's. It is a huge space with miles of buildings. We walked the outer buildings first then toured the East Wing which houses some of the jewels and artifacts, mostly from the Qing Dynasty. There were jade carvings that were size of an SUV and small intricate jewels for crowns.

When we were leaving the Forbidden City, Peter asked if anyone wanted to take a taxi back to the hotel. Oh how I wish I had a time machine! We walked and saw some neat city sites but when we got back to the room we collapsed. We were going to go out shopping this afternoon but instead ordered room service and slept. When I woke up from a short nap I was going to get up and then it hit me what is happening tomorrow. We decided resting up for the magnitude of tomorrow was a better idea than site seeing and shopping-which don't seem so important anymore.

It was an intense day for everyone in our group (every couple's last day as a 2-person family). Several of the women, myself included, teared up everytime we saw a child. There was a woman walking a little girl in the Forbidden City and the girl fell. It must have been quite a site to see 6 white people all lunging forward to help her up!

Dave and I were very touched today by how much we love being here. We are truly developing a love for this country and its people. The Chinese people are so gentle. True, it is crowded, personal space is minimum and it can be very loud. But as a whole it is a very respectful culture. They are so good to their children. Not once the entire day did we see anyone yell at their child or be impatient with them. They patiently help their elderly get places. Sometimes they would be pretty close to us, staring, which in our country would seem like an invasion but we know they are just curious. Even when the men are checking out a woman it is in a much subtler way then we are used to. One of my favorite moments was at the Forbidden Cit when a very tiny elderly woman was looking at me. I smiled at her and she smiled back and gave me a thumbs up! When she walked past me she patted me on the shoulder. It was very sweet.

Well, I'm heading back to the room to pack for tomorrow. We leave the hotel at 6:45. Things could move very fast tomorrow. Apparently we get into Guangzhou around 11:30 then rush to our hotel for a meeting and paperwork. They said we will have a very short rest and then will go the civil affairs office to get the babies. I am numb with disbelief. Tomorrow our new, exciting life begins.