Day 2 of the Adventure
We all met in the lobby at 8 am for our bus ride to Tiananmen Square. Mulan music was playing when we boarded the bus.
On our way there, Daisy and Jennae warned us about the people who would try to sell us everything we didn't need like Mao watches. They taught us how to se "no thank you" in Mandarin (yeah, that didn't really help unless they came to our rescue.
sure enough, as soon as the bus parked, the hawkers descended upon the bus in droves. Quite comical actually.
Oh, we were also told that most Chinese will never see Caucasians except in the movies so don't be surprised if they ask to take photos of various members of the tour ... Especially the blondes and gingers.
and yup, one group of young girls wanted their photo taken with the kids on the tour. It was too funny.
This is also where we took our first "family" photo. The square was crowded but not as crowded as it could have been. Today was tomb sweeping day so Daisy thought many were in the subiurbs seeping the tombs of their ancestors. From here we went into the Forbidden City where our guides were quite informative on a variety of historical and cultural items. Daisy and Jennae are hilarious btw. They have great humor.
On our way out of the Forbidden City, we were warned again not to buy anything on our walk back to the bus. Walking back through these people was like walking through a crowd of zombies. They walk with arms outstretched with their merchandise in one hand while chanting their mindless sales pitch. This is where we also saw a lot of disabled and disfigured beggars. It was actually somewhat depressing and disheartening to see some of these people begging.
While waiting for the bus to arrive, a man selling sweet potatoes from his bicycle tried to sell us some but he was also very willing to play along with us and have his photo taken. He was quite a lovely man and laughed when I showed him a photo I had taken of him.
Lunch was at a very interesting restaurant. Another multiple course meal with Peking Duck as our last course. We were all stuffed and we left a lot of food on the table.
We went back to the hotel for our free afternoon. The guides made suggestions on where to go. We decided to look at one of the day markets. We walked around the market and found a few stalls selling scorpion on a stick and meal iris orn a stick. (ask Jennae about her experiences investing these little delacasies)
At 5:30.pm, my dad and I went down to learn calligraphy, make a kite and paint opera masks.
Dinner was served in thle same room as the crafts. Yummy Western meal.
BTW, I am deliberately being vague on some parts of the trip because I believe the surprises should remain surprises
Jennae anD the shadow guests sat our table along with a couple from California
Jennae told us stories about the ABD African tour. I felt badly for her that we kept asking and she answered everything.
Back to the room for another early start tomorrow morning as we bus it to the Great Wall.