China Day 2

Today we got up early (mostly because we couldn't sleep due to jetlag) and we had a nice breakfast in the hotel.  We met with our tour guide, Duan who took us to see some sights today.

The first site we saw was Tien An Men square which is the largest city square in the world, here in Beijing, a city of 14 million people.  The city seems to go on forever! We walked around there for awhile then went through the gate into the Forbidden city, so named because only officials and the emperor were allowed to enter for many years, and it was not accessible to 'commoners'.  More pics from the Forbidden City (now called the Palace Museum) which has 9,999 rooms!  This palace is over 800 years old which is pretty incredible given that our own country is only 200 years old!

Then we went to the Summer Palace where various emperors and empresses spent the summer months lounging by this man made lake which was dug out in the 17th century.  Below right is a picture of our tour guide with Sue, and to her right are Rodney and Joy, two more adoptive parents that will travel on with us to Hubei where they will meet their daughter as well!  We went to dinner tonight and Tim managed to get us fed with his limited Chinese!

Finally after walking all day long we went to a massage place next to the hotel.  They gave us pajamas that we put on, then we soaked our feet in super hot water, and each of us had 2 masseuses for 90 minutes give us a massage, for about $25.00!  Sue says we're going back tomorrow :)