Thursday July 5

Thursday July 5th
Beijing

Thankfully there was vomiting today. All is right in the world. Our first stop was Tiananmen Square, the sight where Mao Zedong declared the Nationalist party in 1949 and the more recent Tiananmen Square incident of 1989. We went early enough so the Square wasn't super crowded and thankfully it was an overcast day because there is zero shelter from the sun in the area. It was amazing to really see and appreciate the size of the Square, it fits 1 million people!

We had to climb underground, adult spirit smell following us in a long hot tunnel, to get to the other side of the street and enter into the Forbidden City, built 800 years ago. We clearly would not have been invited in 800 years ago. And apparently we would not have successfully tunneled our way through because paranoia ran rampant and the emperor laid 7 layers of brick! And of course you'd be scared too of outsiders if you built a massive palace while your people are starving.

We had some time to kill so we had Chairman Mao's army of foot massagers give us a synchronized foot massage. And when I say an army, I mean they took all 16 people of our group into a single, large room and had us lay on plush purple chairs while they pampered our feet. Periodically the sound of 16 people being smacked with mallets began to sound like the celestial horses galloping along the Silk Road.

After the most luxurious foot massage we've ever had, (Scratch that the only foot massage we've ever had. Oh yea and it was ONLY $25!) we headed off the Beijing Opera. The acrobatic performance of the Monkey King wrestling the troublemakers was really cool to watch.

We ended the rather long day with the famous Peking duck dinner! The food was unbelievable, however watching the chef snap the ducks's head off, carve up the duck's body, and drag the decimated carcass away in a plastic body produced thoughts of the Sopranos in our minds. Seriously though, the meal was delicious.

Ms. Bisconti, who dutifully carried her umbrella AND poncho all day long decided it hadn't rained at all so why bother carrying it into the restaurant. Ms. Becker woefully unprepared for any occurrence of rain for the next 25 days. So can you guess how we ended our evening?
Ms. Becker and Ms. Bisconti

Tiananmen Square:








The Forbidden City:


















The Beijing Opera
The Monkey King:







Posted using BlogPress from my iPad