Day 6 - 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42...

I think we've figured out why people on this side of the world are so skinny. They're constantly hungry! We had a nice meal at a real Chinese restaurant yesterday, but when we left we were all hungry a couple of hours later. So we thought we'd get a good meal at our welcome ceremony last night - heaping plate of food. Not so much! Just little things here and there although I will say that I think I made up for it at the dessert table. A girl's gotta eat! Looking for a way to shed a few pounds? Visit China!


I keep forgetting to tell you how AWESOME the pool is! The pool is built underground and is the coolest thing we've ever seen. The picture barely does it justice but you get the idea. Little coves along the left with the hot tubs and fountains all along the length of the pool. It's huge!!

So this morning I met up with some of the wives to hit the shopping. HOLY COW! I thought I was prepared but I wasn't. You walk down rows and rows of vendors all selling the same kinds of things and they grab your arm trying to get you into their area to sell you stuff. "Lady! You like purse? You want Prada, Louis Vuitton? I have new Coach! Good deal just for you." It's crazy!! I thought I'd have a hard time with the bargaining, but I got the hang of it and I must say, I was a hard ass. The only problem is the ladies don't let you think - on purpose. I was trying to do my mental math but they wouldn't shut up! The dollar equals about 7 RMB. So 140 RMB is $20. These ladies start their price at 8 or 900 RMB and you have to get them down. I kept running my multiples of 7 in my head but not fast enough. Matt wants to go back and I am ready this time!


When the men were done with their session we met up with them for our tour. We started at The Forbidden City. This is a picture of Matt's study group he has been with since the beginning. They are the S&P5 for Sara Szmania, Sarah Peterson and the 5 guys (Eric, Matt, Farris, Jason and Nathan). These are the people he's spent the last two years with.

The Forbidden City is HUGE! We walked and we walked and we walked. The buildings are all starting to look the same here but I am still amazed at the incredible detail on all of them. It's just breathtaking.

I don't know if you can even see some of the tiny stuff on these buildings. Simply amazing!

While we were in there we had to follow our English speaking tour guide. Just the day before we were laughing at all the tour groups following their tour guide with the little flag. Now we were one of those little groups - following the pink flag. During our tour we were looking at The Hill of Accumulated Elegance when all of a sudden a police man yelled something at our tour guide and he hearded us off the path and into a little covered area. It was a little unnerving not knowing what was going on. We waited for a few minutes and then a group of about 10 people walked by. After they were gone, we were released from our area to continue our tour. Kinda crazy.

At the end of the tour we walked back to our buses for our next stop. The picture below is one last look at the Forbidden City from the north gate.

We have an itinerary of all our events but they are not very detailed. All we knew is we were off to the Old Hutong area of Beijing. The buses dropped us off at a drum tower. We climbed the steepest steps I've ever seen in my life up to the top. The drums are played at certain times each day as a way to tell time. When all 25 drums are playing it can be heard in The Forbidden City. We only heard 5 this time and it was loud but SOOO COOL!

From the top you could really get a sense of the standard of living. It's amazing to see where these people live and HOW they live. I have to say I can see why people that visit other countries are changed by their visits. It really makes you think.

The coolest part was yet to come and we didn't even know it. When we climbed down, a fleet of pedicabs were waiting for us. Two by two we climbed in and like a little parade we went down the streets of Old Hutong. This is the picture our driver took of us.

The tour guides told us we would be going to visit a lady and we could ask her questions but we had no idea what we were in for. This lady allowed our entire group of about 30 into her house and told us about how the families live. Our tour guides translated for us and after her introduction we were able to ask her questions. She's been having "foreign" groups into her house for the last 4 years and you could see how important it is for her. She had pictures of the people up around the room we were sitting in. I felt so honored to be in her house listening to her share her story with us.

Then our little parade of pedicabs was off again for one last stop and back to the buses. We were told to tip the drivers 10 RMB which amounts to a little over $1. I told Matt to give him 15RMB. He was such a nice man. We didn't speak his language, but we were able to communicate. Each time we stopped to get off he'd jump off his bike and motion for us to get off. He'd see our eyes searching for him after each stop and he'd give us a little wave. Just a man trying to make a living.

After all that it was back to the buses for the drive to the hotel. The day was very insightful.