Dreams of Mulan and more.....

Hello everyone!  The end of day two of our journey to Declan and we just returned from an evening at the theater, but more on that later!

Just as yesterday we started out early with another great breakfast at the hotel and met Sarah at 9:30 in the lobby to start our day.  First on the agenda was Tiananmen Square followed by the Forbidden City. The great part about having Sarah be our guide is that she can provide so much more colorful history into how China has developed as a nation than the self guided audio versions that are available.

When we first rolled into Tiananmen Square we were so overwhelmed with the sheer size of area and with the history we know is behind it.  Our driver dropped us off beside the square and we started our journey walking around the entire perimeter and discussing each of the buildings. Used as a massive meeting place since its creation, its flatness is contrasted by the 125 ft high Monument to the People's Heroes, and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong at its center. The square lies between two ancient, massive gates: the Tian'anmen to the north and the Zhengyangmen, better known as Qianmen to the south. Along the west side of the Square is the Great Hall of the People. Along the east side is the National Museum of China which is dedicated to Chinese history predating 1919. For me, this visit stirred a curiosity to learn more about the history of China and Sarah's personal stories fueled in every further. It was also really interesting to see all the people in the square and see how they reacted to us and the kids. After finishing the square we headed across the street to the Forbidden City.

Yes, this is where Mulan handed the sword back to the Emperor!

The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost 500 years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government.  Walking thorough the gates was magical, passing under Chairman Mao's photo this seen on any news broadcast covering China in a political manner, then stepping into the massive courtyard that leads your deeper into the site. Rather than try and tell you all about what we saw I will let you fill your inner curiosity of this most beautiful of places online by reading all about the Forbidden City.

From the Forbidden City Sarah took us to a neat little restaurant for lunch that provided the family with some much needed downtime to recover our energy.  A meal of sweet and sour pork, kung pao chicken, rice, corn, sauteed greens, dumplings, seaweed soup and canary melon had us all wishing we had eaten less at breakfast!

After lunch we headed to a silk factory for a little shopping and educated ourselves on where real silk comes from. The kids loved learning about the process and the adults were overwhelmed with what the silk can be made into!  It was a real chore trying to control ourselves with all the great items available, but we kept our eyes on the real reason we are here, made some small purchases and moved on to finish out the day.

After some sightseeing around the Olympic Park and downtown we came back our hotel for a quick nap before our evening out.  After about an hour we walked just down the block from our hotel to see the Chinese National Acrobatic Troupe perform which was a real hit with the kids! To see the performers flying trough the air, tumbling as if on springs and doing things that we could only dream of doing was truly phenomenal. Since there was no filming or photography allowed in the theater, you will have to see what we saw by viewing a sample of some of the same type of performance found online here.

With that we came back here to the hotel to prepare for departure tomorrow by packing up, washing the  kids up for bed and sitting down to write to each of you!  I hope you enjoyed tonight's entry and that there are only 2 more days until we complete our forever family!

So until then.....

Mike (you mean we are eating again?), Ann Marie (Ill let him make the decision!), Savannah (I wont ask for another thing if I can have these $75 silk pajamas) and Aiden (what do you mean squatty potty?) Kennedy

Prospect Hill or  Coal Hill is perhaps best known as the site of the suicide of the last Ming emperor.

Crossing the Bridge over the Golden Water River

Tiananmen Square with the Kennedys

Beautiful Princess

 Darling Little Prince

Paying homage to the God of Prosperity

Our hotel, the Poly Plaza in Beijing

No trip would be complete without the Birds Nest!