Day 2 The Great Wall

This is the part of the trip Mom had been waiting for. She has always wanted to see the Great Wall. She didn't know the upward hike to get to the cable car that gets you to the Great Wall was quite so long and steep, but she made it :)

Yeah!

We had a very caring guide. Most of the time he drives people to the wall and says call when you are ready to leave, but he was worried about Mom and all the steps. He stayed with her and helped her all along the way.

Me and Mom

Me and Xiao Jun

I was impressed that Mom walked as much of it as she did. It goes on forever...it's hard to capture in a picture.

Coming back down on the cable car...Mom and my friend thought it was much scarier than going up.

At the bottom, we were greeted by a slew of cats and their own tiny wall ;)

I guess this is what happens when you have a refrigerator outside....all of the drinks freeze.

After the wall, we came back to see the Summer Palace.  I've seen it before. It's beautiful in the spring and summer. The winter definitely had a unique view...still pretty and relaxing, but a very different place compared to the first visit.

The emperor paid artists to paint scenes from the south on all the beams so as you walk though the gardens, you could see all of the beauty from all over China.

I like the details in the stonework.

The lake inside the palace had begun to freeze over.

a lovely sunset

dinner that night.

It was quite interesting. We wanted to try several new dishes and when all of our food came, it was all ice cold. Apparently that's how you eat many of the dishes there. We asked the waitress to show us the hot dishes on the menu and she pointed to THREE!

cold slippery noodles (my name)

My friend had to argue and convince her to please take our bowls of rice and heat it in the microwave ;)

Yummy! And HOT! Spicy and Temperature hot! Lamb on a stick

This just made me laugh...Wu Mart

It's time to leave and go to our last destination! I'm glad we left early for the airport because this check in line is a little ridiculous at 6 am!

We arrived in Harbin and the baby cuteness continues...

Our hotel :)

Beijing Day 1

My mom's time here is coming to an end. Before she goes back, we (Mom, Xiao Jun, and I) were taking a quick trip to Beijing. Yoyo and Winter came to see us off :)

waiting at the airport for the plane :)

It was really cold, but fun to walk around and see what was around.  One of the first things we saw was this Catholic church. The people danced in front of the church every night.

This was part of Wangfujie...I thought it looked like Big Ben (a little) They had lights up for the New Years, but then we never saw them turned on (we were there on Dec. 31)

We went to a famous restaurant known for it's Peking duck. It was delicious!! Each chef is a professional carver. They present the meat in such a pretty way.

That's our chef in the background. As he cut the meat, our waiter actually made our food for us to show us the traditional way to eat it. I could get used to this ;)

We had these cute little duck desserts at the end. I don't know how to describe it, but it was good.

ready for the food!

Mmm, Mmm, good!

outside the restaurant

Tianamen Square

check out the security cameras

Everything was partially frozen over. This is the moat surrounding the Forbidden City.

We were freezing, but had a great time.

inside the Forbidden City

The lions guard the entrance...tradition says that once they are placed they can never be moved or it will cause terrible things to happen. Many still believe this. In 2008, they raised the lions up 12 inches to do some renovation around them. That was the same year of the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan when over 69,000 people died and hundreds of thousands injured. They believe it happened because they moved these slightly. They say they will not move them again.

Master Wugui ;)

The more of these little animals on the roofs of the building, the more important the building is.

This was inside one of the rooms...it was hard to get pictures, but this was the seat where the emperor sat.

This was a fruit holder.

Mom was freezing and decided not to leave the bathroom since they had heaters on the wall...haha!

walking through the gates

We walked up to the top of Jingshan Park.  Everything you see behind us is the Forbidden City. It's really a pretty big place!

Mom is freezing!

This is where we ate lunch.

This was my favorite dish there! I love the cauliflower dishes here! Yum! I think I ate most of this :)

Huge jiaozi (dumplings)

I like all the paintings on the beams under walkways.

The Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven, built for the God of Heaven that he did not know.

Mom liked this tree, but the guide said we were not allowed to take pictures of trees because it was bad luck. Hmmm. You can see I do not agree with him. :)

This was inside the Temple of Heaven. The Tablet at the top center says to the unknown God.

This was believed to be the exact center of the universe. Interesting.

We got excited to see a Dunkin Donuts and try it out. They were definitely not US style donuts, but fun to try. I think I'll just wait for the real ones.

I told the kids that they should do this with their stuffed animals next year at Christmas :)

Outdoor food market

Some kind of pineapple dessert. And yes, we say the scorpions and beetles and starfish and such on a stick, but only tried "normal looking" food ;)

I just love the little bundled up babies :)

We tried several different kinds of food.  This one had bacon, and a little egg, noodles, and several unique sauces...wrapped up like a burrito and then cut into bite size pieces

So I call these "balls on a stick" but they are dates covered in a hard candy syrup....reminds me a little bit of candied apples....anyways. They are good...a little sweet and a little sour.

This is my friend being fascinated that you could see your breath outside :)