Chop Suey!

  Beijing, China
Friday, December 5, 2008

Hey Everyone!!!!!!!
Tara here, gosh, so since the last blog lots of things have happened. Firstly we're in China!!!!! And it's so different here! I love walking along the streets at night because everything's lit up and it's all in chinese (mandarin). It's also kinda cool because where ever we walk we feel famous, because in China they still have the one child limit and when we go out with four kids in the family I guess they can't help but stare!! Also the toilets here are just toilet bowls in the ground and you stand above them. It's very strange and when a toilet cleaning person saw me taking a picture of one of the stalls I got a very funny look. And it's a lot colder here than it was in Africa. Also it's normal to spit and snort on the side walk here. I think it's a bit gross.

Our first day in China was spent at the Forbidden City. It's this small enclosed city where the emperors' used to live and there's about 20 huge palace buildings all walled in. First we saw the hall of supreme harmony where there was a throne. Then there was a hall of middle harmony with a couch. Also the halls of central and preserving harmony with more chairs and a desk. So it was cool but kinda repetitive thus becoming a bit boring by the end. But everyone wanted pictures with us. At one point we turned around looking for Brett only to find this woman cradling him in her arms posing for a picture.  Then at the end we went in this little cafe and Sam mis-took a table for a chair and sat on it. So the cafe owner came over and told him to get off!

Even the buses are are a challenge here, I got on a bus only to find the doors had shut before the rest of my family could get on. Luckily someone yelled and I was able to get off and take the next one. When we got off at Tiannamen Square it took 20 minutes for us to figure out how to cross the road, someone had to point out that there was an underpass to us. And some random chinese people came up to us, said hello in their chinese accent, and ran away laughing.

Yesterday we went to see the olympic sites. It was pretty cool. It felt kinda weird to me though because during the olympics we were at our cottage with no TV so the olympics for me was limited to 10 minutes of gymnastics. So when I said "look at that building! It looks like a giant birds nest!" I was unaware that that's what they called the olympic stadium. So we went inside and there were a bunch of blowup mascots dancing around to chinese music we couldn't understand.   Later on we went to the silk market. The silk market is in a building and covers 7 floors. There are about 10 different small booths for each thing. And there's everything you can think of.  I was really excited to go but then was really excited to leave after two minutes. I would walk down the aisle and it was impossible to look at anything because all the vendors were all over you telling you they had the best stuff and prices. Sometimes they would grab you and pull into their booth. At one point I was walking with Sam when he just disappeared and I went back to find him in a coat store with a lady grabbing on and not letting go! And if you want something you bargain for it and whatever a thing costs if you divide it buy ten thats what it's really worth and what you should pay. So if they say 100 yuan, you say 10 yuan. Quinn got a pair of shoes. At one point while Quinn was looking for shoes everyone was pawing him and trying to get him into their booth and he was so overwhelmed that he started crying! I was happy to go.

Today we went to the Great Wall!!!!!!!!! I was so excited! We woke up early and got driven to the Mutianyu part of the wall. It's not as touristy as Badaling but farther away. So we walked up and it was amazing. We would walk up a huge hill and then find it would go on for so much longer! We could see it go on for a while and in the distance we could see peaks with the wall still going! It was nice and barely anyone was there! And since it's on a high ridge to get down we went on a tobboggan track! It was so much fun, we had these plastic tobboggans on wheels and this really narrow track all the way down. Sam went first and all the workers were yelling at him to slow down. You have a break/accelerator and when I went down it was fun but no one told me to slow down. Mom and Dad did it too! Quinn went with Mom.

Then we went to a restaurant and found out that if you finish everything on your plate it means that you're still hungry. So every time we finished something they would bring out a new plate or put more on your plate. At one point our driver (who ate with us as well as drove us) asked Brett if he wanted more tea and Brett shock his head so the driver pored him more. Then later when Brett said he did want more tea the driver didn't give him any. So when the driver wasn't looking we all put some stuff on our plates and didn't eat it to show we were full. We must have eaten so much because thinking it was polite we would finish the plates of food only to have them re-filled.

Well two more days in Beijing and them we fly to Kunming. I miss everyone and everything, such as skiing!!!!!! So enjoy skiing everyone who can! Tell us all how you guys are doing and see most of you next summer!

Tara 

Well, Tara has filled you in on our last few days.  We are enjoying Beijing immensely apart from the cold which is hard to get used to after Africa with the added fact that we do not have the correct clothing.  Our first day we purchased hats, we had a laugh trying them on, the vendor offered me one with a scorpian design which I flatly refused, don't need any reminders of that incident!  We are wearing almost all of our clothing at once trying to keep warm and used our socks as gloves at the Great Wall.  The food is wonderful and again a challenge as half the time we do not know what we are getting.  We treated ourselves to Peking Duck today which is now called Beijing Duck I guess.  It was delicious and as we were perusing the menu which had some photos with english translations the waitress pointed to the stir fried donkey!  Needless to say the kids told me not to order that.

 I think the Great Wall of China was the highlight for all of us - it was absolutely amazing, wonderful views and hardly anyone there. We had to pinch ourselves a few times, Doug and I were supposed to make it to China 18 years ago on our tour around the world but we ran out of time.  There we were after all these years now with our children.    The toboggan ride down was a hoot albeit very cold on the hands and face.   Quinn says he prefers England and Africa as people don't spit on the ground and snort their noses in those countries!  He also does not like all the man-handling he has been receiving.  The Chinese people are not shy about 'abducting' our children for their photos, even picking them up in their arms.  We are off to see a chinese acrobatic show tomorrow then on Sunday we fly off to Kunming across the other side of China on Sunday. 

PS.  I have had some comments that the photos are fuzzy when viewed in slide show.  I do not know why this is so as they are perfectly fine on my computer - it must be the travelpod program. If anyone has used this program before and can offer advice on improvements, please let me know.