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FORBIDDEN CITY: This place is the former home to various emperors over a period of 600 years up until 1911. It is a huge walled city of ornately decorated buildings protected by lots of sculptures of scary mythical creatures. One cannot help but be impressed with the sheer immensity.
For lunch our guide took us to a restaurant full of Chinese people eating yummy looking food. We were surprised to be ushered past them all and down some stairs to a special basement room reserved for foreigners. Our guide told us she would eat upstairs because she was not allowed to eat down there. The food served to us was tasty, but safe fare for the Western palate served by teenagers who stood next to the table and stared at us and giggled. We had fun with them.
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SILK FACTORY: Onto the government silk factory. Did you know a silk worm’s cocoon is one super long silk thread? About a mile long. No kidding. And unbelievably strong in spite of being barely visible. Silk thread is made by twisting ten threads together, making it all but unbreakable. (Note the cocoons floating in the water in groups of ten.) And the fabrics made from it are gorgeous. Some genius figured out that you could get two larvae into the same cocoon (twins?) and their silk thread would get twisted as the cocoon was created, making a net much like a very strong spider web. They told us this stuff is so strong it can be made into a bullet proof vest. We watched a woman opening up the double cocoon and stretching it. She layers it over others she had already stretched, again and again. You can stretch it in all four directions to out to king size and layer up thousands of them to make a very soft quilt (with the added bonus of keeping you safe from any stray bullets which might be passing though your bedroom.)
Finally, we took in a show of Chinese acrobats which was amazing and fun, and then spent the remainder of the evening strolling with our guide down a busy avenue of street vendors where you can dine on skewered meats. We opted out of the skewered meats. Mostly because the choices of meat not only included hearts and livers, but also crickets, larvae, scorpions, squid, seahorses, and chicken embryos. And some of the scorpions are alive and still wiggling. Don’t look at these last photos if your about to eat dinner.
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TEMPLE TO HEAVEN: Monday morning was spent at the Temple to Heaven which is a beautiful building where the emperor attempted to communicate with Heaven on an annual basis. The temple is situated in an enormous park where retired folks come daily for morning exercises. These guys retire at 50 years old, and they really know how to enjoy it. We saw hundreds of people doing various exercises together. Everything from badminton to line dancing. We enjoyed ourselves by joining in with the group who was waltzing.
GREAT WALL: Our last stop was the Great Wall. In spite of Victor’s disbelief, our guide claims that the Chinese government recently calculated the length of the wall to be 10,000 kilometers, or 6,000 miles. With that much mileage, I’m not sure why she took us to the section that goes straight up a very tall mountain on a windy day. The steps are not to code either. We got in o
ur exercise for the day, and all in 30° weather.We are thankful to our guide for a wonderful tour of Beijing. She has helped us tremendously to appreciate the rich history and culture of this great nation.
Tomorrow we will get to know this culture in a much more personal way. Our driver will pick us up at 5am. We fly to Zhengzhou, capital of the Henan province. Sam Sam will be arriving there as well.
Best get some sleep before the big day that changes our lives forever. We'd love some emails.
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