Shawn and Kaycee waiting for the omelet chef to finish up their eggs; Doug checking out some of the mystery meat on the breakfast buffet in our hotel.
Doug at the breakfast buffet.
The Congee Station. Congee is a rice porridge. The bowls have various pickled items to add to the congee to give it taste. The congee is OK - it tastes like runny oatmeal. The pickled stuff was not my favorite!
Salad bar at the breakast buffet
Breakfast plate for an adventerous eater (not Doug). The cup on the left holds congee. The plate has watermelon, french toast with chocolate sauce, mystery meat sausage link, dim sum (steamed dumpling), potato cake, spring roll, and fried egg.
Shawn enjoying his rice krispies
Kaycee, Kris, and Mom
Mom
Doug
Coffee - strong, burnt, sludge
Beth, Shawn, Doug, Kaycee, and Kris in Tianamen Square
Kaycee, Kris, our FTIA Guide Kathryn, and Beth
Beth & Doug taking a much-needed break from the walking
Our knight in shining armour behind his wheelchair
These kettles are used to hold water in the wintertime. They keep a fire blazing under the kettles to keep the water thawed. The water is used to extinguish fires.
White stone is a sign of great wealth and it is everywhere within the City. Only emporers were allowed to own white stone.
Chivalry is certainly not dead in China. The people here are so very helpful! Everywhere I go, whenever there are stairs or steps, someone - man or woman - pops out of nowhere and wants to help me up and down stairs. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. In any event the intention of pure kindness and concern are so very evident.
We nicknamed our assistant Don Juan. His actual name was "something Xuan" and was just too hard to pronounce.
Rock formation in the Emporers Garden near the North Gate of the Forbidden City.
Flowering trees in the Emporers Garden
Chatting it up with some of the other FTIA families
Beautiful building on the edge of Tianamen Square.
Walking up to the entrance to the Forbidden City. Tianamen Square is very large.
Monument in Tianamen Square
This Chinese Family wanted Kaycee to take a picture of their son. We felt lke rock stars. Everywhere we went, people kept wanting to take pictures of people in our group.
Mom walking toward the entrance to the Forbidden City. Very few people have gray hair here. So, she was a star too - people would stop and star, point, and/or take pictures of her. One young man asked her to take a picture with his wife.
Beth & Doug in Tianamen Square
Our wonderful guide, Kathryn
Tianamen Square
Chairman Mao Tse Tung, a highly revered Chinese military and political leader
Entering the Forbidden City
Most days there are more than 55,000 people who visit this place
Inside the Forbidden City; there are 9 gates you pass through, and 9,999 rooms within the city. There is a lot of significance in the number 9 here.
Bridge; the water under this bridge is a frozen slushy mixture where people have deposited trash and paper. It does not look like it has been cleaned out in a very long time.
More marble
One of the ceremonial temples within the Forbidden City
Beautiful architecture; note the carved animals on each corner of the building. The number of carved animals on the rooftop denotes the importance of the hall. The numbers range from 5 to 10. Only the Hall of Supreme Harmony has 10.
More beautiful architecture
One of the 9 gates
Painstaking detail
Largest mable carving within the city
beautifully detailed carvings on the side of one of the buildings
Notice the carved animals on the corner of the building
Doug took this picture for his mom who used to collect turtles when he was a kid
Inside one of the emporer's buildings
Kaycee's Don Juan
The walkways in the Emporers Garden were made of tiny marble stones, intricately ornate; the emporers would walk barefoot on these stones to get their feet massaged.
Leaving the Forbidden City; we saw the not so clean side of Bejing.
Flying Acrobat Show
Kaycee with one of the performers
Doug at McDonald's
Yes, we ate there :(
Mom, Kaycee and Kris in the hottub - unwinding after a physically exhausting day
