July 3 in China!

I just realized I never sent an email out about this day!  Or..if I did, I don't have a copy of it!

Last night, we saw the middle schoolers and Sandy, their leader, that joined us in our orientation meetings!  Their group is 2 days behind us.  It was great to see and talk to them awhile!

After breakfast, we headed to the Beijing Zoo!  Wow!  I would have loved to have had a lot of time to explore...but we didn't.  We headed straight for the Giant Pandas!  Our group was excited with a capital E!  (Actually, I think the leaders were too!)  The Panda is a symbol of China.  They are picky eaters...only liking about 12 of the hundreds of different kinds of bamboo.  They have been having breeding problems and so because of this, they've been trying all kinds of medicines and herbs to help. 

The pandas are absolutely adorable.  This one kept coming to the fence and standing up, sitting down, scratching his ear, standing up again...Katie read a proclamation about the importance of the panda and wanting to protect it.

After seeing the panda in our little private part of the zoo, we headed into the main part of the zoo.

After getting our tickets, everyone divided into small groups and took off to explore this section. 

This is certainly not everyone, but whenever the students would break up into groups, the leaders would take photos of each group.  These are just the ones I took this day.

One of the rules of the groups was...there had to be at least one male.  That wasn't usually a problem since our delegation had 19 guys and 11 girls! 

This photo (below) took awhile.  The Asians push and shove to get what they want...and finally, our group was a bit more assertive and just went up in front!  I was proud of them!

After a break for lunch...we went to an old part of Beijing called the Hutong.  It's old...very old...I'm not sure the dates.  Rickshaws are how we got around!  They were pulled by men on bicycles.

The Hutong was the area where people who worked for the emperor or for the palace lived.  Now it's a community where many families have lived for generations.  Rich and poor live side by side.

We did see some homes being remodeled, but they have to look like the rest of the ones from the outside.  The way of life in the Hutong is to be preserved.  They all have to be 1 story and flat roofed. 

The homes do NOT have bathrooms!  Only the very wealthy have them.  Ever so often along these streets, you see a communal mens and womens bathroom.  That's where everyone goes to bath and use the toilets! 

This is a home/hotel of someone who is in higher standing.  How can you tell?  Look above the doors and you'll see 4 little bluish circles.  Those are posts and they are a sign of your standing.  4 is great.

Here's a better picture of them....

Here is a home with only 2.  This is an average family...an average family home.  This was the 'Wang' family.

We were invited in to this home (prearranged) and were able to listen and ask questions about life in the Hutong.  You have to remember there were 35 of us..and this house is small...very small...probably 600 square feet? 

This lady used to live in this house...but she's now married and lives in another house in the Hutong with her husband.  Her family still lives here, though.  She told us that many of the younger generation don't want to live in the Hutong, but the older generations like this way of life.  She said the community feels like a big familly.

She (I can't remember her name...couldn't remember it 2 seconds after I heard it!) paints beautifully on the INSIDE of little bottles.  She showed us  how she does it and let us all try.

This is the kitchen of that house...

and this was the bedroom--which was just off the living area..no door, just off the living area. 

Here's the communal bathrooms...

The Hutong was definitely an experience!

Because our group and the Monterey group had missed most of the first day, Effee dropped off most of the Seattle group at the opera house...just to walk around the outside of it.  The rest of us (along with a few of the Seattle group), then walked to Tian'anmen square!  I would have been so disappointed if we hadn't seen this!

This is the fourth largest square in the world...109 acres!  Although some places I've read it IS the largest square in the world.  Regardless, it's big!  It can hold over a million people!  I'm glad there weren't that many there this day! Many of you (parents) may remember the Tian'anmen Square protests back in 1989...a horrible time.  Many, many civilians were shot by soldiers.

Monument to the People's Heroes (front)

Great Hall of the People (back)

You can see the picture of Chairman Mao...where many take their photo.

The Seattle group came here and went into the Forbidden City as we were in Detroit and enroute from Detroit!  We did not get to go into the Forbidden City.  I was disappointed, but the delegates didn't seem to mind!

From there, we headed to the Summer Palace!  It's beautiful...but we couldn't see all the beauty of it because of the air...I think it was just plain ole smog!  It was hot...and humid...

The Summer Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site...and it is gardens, palaces, and lakes.  UNESCO describes it as, "a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design..."

We were in the area of Kunming Lake.

The Summer Palace started out as the "Garden of Clear Ripples"...in 1750.  Later, in the 1880's, it was the summer resort for one of the Empresses. 

Like I said, it was hot and humid this day.  This picture below is a walkway that goes around part of the lake...and for whatever reason, walking through it is cool, literally, and there was a breeze!  Step out of it, and you started to melt.  It was crazy!  We stayed in it as long as we could.  Isn't it beautiful?  Look at the designs in the ceiling, on the posts...the whole thing was gorgeous!

Here we are on a Dragon Boat...heading across the lake. 

After the Summer Palace and dinner, we headed to the train station to catch our overnight train to Xi'an.  This was to be a 12 hour ride...which actually ended up being close to 13.

We had an entire car to ourselves...at each end was a toilet.  Wait...I remember writing about this...but I don't have a copy of it....oh well.

Like I was saying, at each end of the car was a toilet.  At one end was a regular squat toilet..or Asian toilet...at the other end a western toilet!  We put the girls close to the western toilet and the boys to the Asian.  The leaders were in the middle.  There were 3 or 4 to a cabin...you can see how close the quarters were! 

It didn't make any difference.  They still had fun, sitting in the narrow walkway playing cards or just hanging out.  You can see the windows right behind Anthony's head (yes, that's Anthony with a swift turn of his head)...and there were windows in the cabins.

Off we went to Xi'an!