Monday, April 30th ~
We all slept pretty well, considering major jet lag. We woke up around 3am but were able to rest a little longer. We grabbed some breakfast and headed out to explore Beijing around 8:30am. We ended up walking about 10 miles throughout the day (our feet were feeling it), plus took the subway several times. The subway is so cheap!
As we walked toward the Forbidden City, a little boy, probably about 8 years old, was walking along with us and asked us several questions in very clear English. Then his mom told us they had lived in Florida for a year. I think he enjoyed the opportunity to use his English with us. Every time we've been here, people have stared, taken photos of us, or even asked to take a picture with us, but it was even more so having the girls along with us. Braylee politely smiled for the pictures, but Brynna loved it. 😉
Tiananmen Square & the Forbidden City were extra crowded due to May 1st being China's Labor Day (& it being observed 4/30 & 5/1). We couldn't believe how much busier it was (and how much security has been added there and the other tourist stops) than when we visited 6 years ago.
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We walked back to Wangfujing street for lunch. Braylee (our picky eater) was so happy to have familiar food!
While we were sitting here, a little grandma asked to get a picture with the girls, then she wanted a picture of our whole family. 😊 |
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| Entrance to Snack Street. So many wild food finds, stuck right in the middle of a high-end shopping district. |
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| Braylee LOVED the glazed strawberries (She's picky except when it comes to sweets and fruit. 😉). The glaze is hard like a thin sheet of jolly rancher poured over the top. I was expecting the glaze to be gooey, so I was surprised when it crackled as I took the first bite. |
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| Navigating the subway system. |
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| At Olympic Park. When the girls acted too mature to pose by the cartoons, Alex and I showed them you're never really too old. |
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| So then they agreed to a picture too. 😉 |
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Outside the Bird's Nest. Alex posing like Usain Bolt.
The girls are both too young to remember the 2008 Olympics. |
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| Water Cube |
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| Headed to our next stop on the busy subway |
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| Celebrities for the day |
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| Temple of Heaven |
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| You can find these adult workout areas in all of the parks. The girls loved trying them out. |
Even with our feet hurting, we walked a few extra blocks to get some ice cream before going back to our hotel that night. We were so thankful for awesome weather and a successful day of sight-seeing.
Tuesday, May 1st ~
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| We hired a guide for the day to take us to the Great Wall. |
We were surprised with all of the changes at the Great Wall in just 4 years! They have a whole area of souvenirs (which they had before but not as organized and just along the side of the road), restaurants, modern bathrooms, museum, etc. set up just a ways down from the entrance to the Great Wall. It reminded me of the visitor centers at National Parks. From there, we rode a shuttle bus to the parking lot where we had parked in the years prior.
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| Going up to The Great Wall on the chair lift, with Alex & Braylee behind us. |
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| Riding the toboggans down from the wall. |
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Our tour guide, Mary, took us to an amazing lunch at the Great Wall.
Interesting thing about Mary... back in 2014, Alex found her on Trip Advisor and booked her husband to be our guide in Beijing that year. We had a good experience so a couple of other AAC moms used their guide services soon after. Word gets around in the FB adoption groups, and now lots of adoptive families have used them...all because of one of Alex's many Trip Advisor finds. If he wasn't crunching numbers all day, he would make a great travel agent! |
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| We had sweet & sour pork, rice noodles, pork & celery dumplings, laoman dumplings (pork, shrimp, and veggies), fried rice, and spicy green beans. |
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| This girly tried everything and loved it! She especially loved the spicy green beans and noodles. She's definitely the best of us 4 with the chopsticks too. |
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| She ate some rice and tried a little bit of the other stuff but enjoyed her subway sandwich instead. |
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| Her first full authentic Chinese meal at Xian Lao Man restaurant. |
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| Summer Palace, standing next to Kunming Lake |
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| Beijing West Train Station |
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| Our train is on the right. |
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| It was nice having our own room this time since we took up all 4 beds. |
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| Ready for bed! |
When we woke up the next morning, it finally hit me that we were about to meet Juan! It's like I knew the "due date" was approaching, but I went into "labor" at that moment. It was Juan day!! 💕
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