Our second day we met up with three more families and did crazy tours of Tian'amen Square, Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Silk Museum as well as an evening performance of the Beijing Acrobats. Every place we went was wall to wall people as this weekend there are probably 10 million visitors to Beijing for a holiday weekend...all wanting to see the same spots we were touring.
We started with a group picture in Tian'amen Square and after some more photo op time, we proceeded to the Gate of Heavenly Peace which serves as entrance to the Forbidden City, the home of the emperor. We managed to get inside only through succumbing to the pushing of a mass of humanity. Because of the extra time it took to get inside we made our tour an abbreviated one. We moved on from there to lunch and a visit to the government run pearl factory.
From there we proceeded to a side entrance of the Summer Palace. We were pleased about this shift since this gave us an opportunity to see a side of the Summer Palace we had not seen before. We crossed the Marco Polo Bridge ,took many photos and Andrew became an instant celebrity as many people asked for him to pose with them in pictures (Oh the joys of being a towhead in Beijing!).
From there it was just a short trip to the silk museum and store. We were able to observe how silk quilts are made. Quite impressive. "Quilt" is a bit of a misnomer since the silk threads won't bunch and therefore the usual quilt stitching is not used. It is the Chinese equivalent of a down comforter without the allergens or baffles. Alan decided this might be a good thing to have.
As the afternoon wore down we returned to the hotel for a very short respite before setting out for dinner and the Beijing Acrobats. They were every bit as good as I remembered them.
We returned home very exhausted and ready for a good night's sleep!
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ReplyDeleteOh my! The joys of touring during the May 1st holiday! As they say in Chinese, People Mountain, People Sea! You don't by any chance have a tour guide by the English name of Bruce, do you? I have a good friend in Beijing who is a tour guide, and works with adoption groups often. (but really, what are the odds?) Glad to see you're enjoying all of the sights!
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