Today was a whirlwind day around Beijing! Since we arrived in Beijing a day early (due to flights) and aren't leaving for Guangzhou until Monday morning (many families are leaving for their provinces Sunday morning), we have been blessed with having Sara (our guide) all to ourselves. Today we went to Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, and the Summer Palace.
It is currently summer break for the schools in Beijing and the surrounding areas so all of our stops for today were PACKED! The tourists around these attractions were mostly Chinese. Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Summer Palace have a draw similar to what Washington DC would be to an American. The area around Tiananmen square was especially crowded because Mao's tomb is on one corner of the square. There were thousands of people lined up around the building waiting to go inside and pay their respects to the man who united China.
The funniest part of our day came when we realized we were just as interesting to the Chinese as the monuments they had come to visit. Whenever Sara took a picture of us with our camera at least 5 to 10 other people would stop and take the same picture . . . of us! We also had people approach us and ask if they could have their picture taken with us. It finally got to the point where Sara jumped in and told the people to leave us alone so we could continue with our tour. It was rather humorous. We looked around to see if this was happening to the other white tourists (when we saw them) and it wasn't. When we asked Sara why we were so interesting she said it was because we both have fair skin, I have blond hair, and we are both very tall. :)
The funniest part of our day came when we realized we were just as interesting to the Chinese as the monuments they had come to visit. Whenever Sara took a picture of us with our camera at least 5 to 10 other people would stop and take the same picture . . . of us! We also had people approach us and ask if they could have their picture taken with us. It finally got to the point where Sara jumped in and told the people to leave us alone so we could continue with our tour. It was rather humorous. We looked around to see if this was happening to the other white tourists (when we saw them) and it wasn't. When we asked Sara why we were so interesting she said it was because we both have fair skin, I have blond hair, and we are both very tall. :)
Here are a few pictures from our day:
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| Tiananmen Square & Mao's Government Building |
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| Forbidden City |
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| Summer Palace: There was a corridor 732 meters long with paintings on the top and side beams. 14,000 different paintings were represented. |
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| Chinese food in a Chinese restaurant in China! |
Robyn & Randy
what no pictures of you with your new Chinese friends that took advantage of a photo op? The sights look lovely and crowded. Can't wait to see the pictures of you, Randy and Zeke. The complete Ross family!
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