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Introduction
April 8 - Flying to Beijing
April 9 - Beijing
April 10 - Beijing
April 11 - Beijing to Guiping
April 12 - Guiping
April 13 - Guiping to Guilin
April 14 - Guilin to Beijing
April 15 - Beijing to home
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On Monday, we toured Beijing's highlights.
We first went to Tiananmen
Square. It is a vast public square with monuments and
famous buildings all around.
Right next to the square is the Forbidden
City. The emperor used to live here and it is vast and
gorgeous, down to the minute details. Main buildings have
three entrances, for the emperor, his ministers and the common
folk. The entire city is a long series of buildings and courtyards
in between. Our guide told us of the stories, legends and
building details of the city. Roofs are guarded by immortals
and dragons. The importance of the building is designated
by the number of dragons on the roof. We were instructed to
step over the high thresholds for good luck. We also rubbed
the dragons on buildings for luck, as many generations have
done before us.
 
After leaving the Forbidden City, the three of us, plus our
guide, went to the Drum
Tower. We got there just minutes before the show and we
needed to climb a treacherous, steep staircase. While we were
told not to use the handrail (for good luck), I thought we
would have worse luck if we didn't use the rail. We made it
to the top just in time to see the show. It was loud but cool.
We walked around the top and saw the Bell Tower in the distance.
We climbed down much more slowly than our trip up and got
on (bicycle-driven) rickshaws for our Hutong
tour. We toured the maze-like streets that were maybe wide
enough for two rickshaws. I could hear Amy squealing as another
set of rickshaws came through the very close alley-ways. I
closed my eyes while crossing a major street, as I didn't
want to see such a close call with Mark and Amy's rickshaw
and a bus. Along the streets are shops and homes. The hutong
home is a square, with a courtyard in the middle. We stopped
for lunch at one of the homes. It's much quieter inside the
hutong. The courtyard was filled with birds and a very lazy
dog. The family served us a huge and wonderful meal. The hostess
was charmed by Amy (who drew them a picture) and gave her
extra Asian pears and a bracelet.
After the Hutong tour, we went to the Temple
of Heaven. Again a luxurious and vast area of buildings
and gardens. The emperor talked to the gods on the circle
- and only the gods could hear him pray fo good harvests.
He would walk from one building to the next, not on the center
area where Mark and Amy are walking, and make his pleas to
the gods. Outside of the area is a large parkland, with vendors.
There were dancers, karoake and ribbon demonstrations. By
this point, Amy was getting tired and shy and wouldn't try
the ribbons.
After the Temple of Heaven, we joined up with our travelmates
and went to a silk museum. We learned how silk is made from
the worms and had a long opportunity to buy silks. We ended
up buying a silk embroidery tapestry.
 We
then went to a Peking
Duck Dinner Feast. Mark and I were exhausted and nauseous
from lack of sleep, but we ate what we could. We then went
to the Beijing
Acrobat show (and slept in the car on the way). Amy was
enraptured by the amazing show. At intermission, the ladies
behind us talked to Amy about where she was from and spoke
English with her. She loved the attention. After the show,
we collapsed from exhaustion in our hotels...
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