Hutong Tour, Tiananmen Square, and Forbidden City

Today we took a wonderful tour of some fabulous Beijing sites.  We started with the Hutong Tour where we boarded a rickshaw (bicycle driven carriage) and rode through the older, more traditional streets of Beijing.  Beijing is a wonderful mixture of the old and the new, but we were told that mainly older people live in the traditional houses.  They sacrifice private bathrooms for beautiful courtyards where children play, gardens grow, and birds in cages nest.  We visited one man's home who told us how extended families live together in these houses.  Tim and I had a great picture made in the honeymoon suite.  Now, mind you, all rooms in the courtyard house are maybe 8' x 10' or 10' x 10' at the largest.  They include a separate kitchen, dining area, sitting area (like our family room, but much much smaller), and bedrooms.  By the way, the beds in Beijing are extremely hard, but I hear that they are good for you back. :)

From there, we visited a silk factory and learned how they retrieve the silk from the silk worms.  It was interesting and a little gross.  They actually get the sick from the coccoons that the larvae spin.  The process that extracts the silk actually kills the worm.  I have great pics that I'll upload later.  Of course, we did some damage in the shop, buying silk dresses for Chloe, Mer, and Hannah, silk ties, and a silk scarf.  Too much fun.

Then, we had lunch with our crew (3 other families) at a wonderful Chinese restaurant.  We ate in the traditional family style, with a lazy Susan in the middle, housing dish after dish that they brought out.  We ate fish, chicken and beef and I am happy to say that no one got sick.

After lunch, we headed for Tiananmen Square, the largest city square in the world.  Famous for the Chinese student protests in the 1990, the area houses all the important government buildings, very similar to the mall in Washington, D.C.  There were tourists all over; many of them were Asian from other areas of China.  Also, while the sun shone and the temperatures were in the low to mid-50s, there were such strong wind gusts that we were afraid we would lose some of the families' children to the wind.

We also toured the Forbidden City, where past emperors lived.  While it was really interesting learning about the different rooms, architecture, etc., the wind made it sooo cold that by the end of our tour, we were definitely ready to leave.

Now, as we sit in our hotel room, Tim wants me to mention that he's watching a Chinese basketball league on TV and former GA Tech star, Stephon Marbury, is playing for the blue team. (Since we can't read Chinese, we don't know the name of team.)  Also, strangely, they are playing the Rocky theme in the background.

I promise I'll try to post pictures later.  Tomorrow - the Great Wall!!!  I can't wait!