Our First Full Day in China

Today should be our first full day in China. The time is 543am and I'm finding it hard to sleep due to the hard bed. Looking forward to our first buffet. I think people think we're crazy here because we keep taking pictures of the food and even the dishes. haha

The buffet was really nice. It was really nice eating with big plates again. We could drink a lot of juices but was reminded about that we couldn't just drink their water. It was funny seeing roughly 9 families up at 7 am loading up on everything from yogurt to wonton soup, chow mein, and sausages. The best average price for water is 2 bottles for 5 rmb dollars.

We then went to Tiananmen square and the Forbidden City and the Hutong section area and a silk factory. We had over 13000 steps. It tuned out today was the beginning of a 3 day holiday and it felt like everyone wanted to go to the same place. The weather was blue sky, light clouds and breezy. It was great and wow it was really sunny. The light fog I believe was pollution that is slowly catching up with us. Arlene and I both have sore voices, mucus buildup. We walked through the FC on the main center line direction and it was beautiful. I was worried about pick pockets and I had to act really mean sometimes to the peddler sales people and random people that would surround us closely for no reason. There were guards/police everywhere. We heard that a teenager tourist girl was taken to the police station for littering a piece of paper. She must of did it on purpose in front of them. At FC we were listening to our guide, when a little chinese boy pulled his pants down 15 feet away and did a number #1. We were soo shocked that no one took a photo and no reacted but us. We were laughing too hard. We saw this incident again on our way back to the bus.

We had a good history lesson on FC and everyone was exhausted by noon due to the pollution and walk. We had a nice 12 course meal. One teenager had to try a little bright red veggie and ended up drinking up a half a pitcher of water afterwards. He didn't heed my advice about peppers. He said he knew what he was doing. He underestimated the power of a small red pepper. He did heed my advice about milk later to neutralize the effects.

We went to a government silk factory afterwards. We had a great lesson on the silk worm, and their products. It was like a live government informercial and it was impressive and kinda pricey. Many of us couldn't buy much because we were still packed to the limit on baby stuff and couldn't pack any more. We wanted to buy a silk bed cover but after they nickel and dimed you, it was roughly $500 dollars US. Here are pictures of a rickshaw . . . the Hutong Section . . . and a waterway.

Bits & Pieces on Adjusting to Our First Day in China

It's 5am and I'm semi wide awake. The beds are hard here and I really appreciate being able to drink water anytime back in the states. Many of the locals here keep speaking to me in Mandarin and they give me puzzled faces when I can't speak. The restaurant waitress kept staring at us because we wanted a big bottle of cocacola (they had no bottle water) to drink and also wanted rice. Interesting. I thot rice bowls were small. We eat out of 3.5 inch dishes with a half inch high rim. I guess they really believe in portion control. Ironically we at nearby where there was a giant pizza restaurant on one side and another giant pizza place across the street. When in china, eat like the chinese. But somehow we and some new friends were not in the mood to eat pizza . . .

We walked 13000 steps today walking through the Forbidden city. Our voices are all dried up. Not sure if because of dehydration or pollution or food. I'm going to take a airborn tablet tonight. I accidently drank a ice mochal coffee. Please continually pray for good health.