Day 2 in Beijing

Day 2 in Beijing

We woke up early headed to the Forbidden City. For whatever reason, none of us really thought it was going to be that cold because we thought that only Japan would be cold. FALSE. It was cold. But it didn’t matter because the Forbidden City was so incredible! We got there early in the morning and so it wasn’t crowded. For those of you that don’t know, the Forbidden City was home to 24 emperors (so the place is huge) and the whole city has a total of 8,706 rooms where 8,000 people lived. This place makes the White House look like Polly Pocket! But, the architecture was amazing and I couldn’t stop taking pictures of all the dragons that run along the rooftops. Fun Fact: The stone walkways were designed to be orthopedic as emperors walked around in their slippers. Then we made our way out of the Forbidden City and into Tian’men Square where Mao Zedong (chairman of Communist Party) proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The square was super busy with lots of people and Chinese people rushed up to me to get a picture of me with my blonde hair. After lunch we went to a market and it was so different from the other markets that we have been to. In India and Morocco when you want to buy something they offer you a price. Then you can spend about a half an hour (unless you were in Morocco with us—then you spend an hour) arguing about a good price before walking away empty handed or with your new cool “whatever”(in Morocco we got a blanket).
At the market in Beijing it went like this:

Vender: Want to buy this?
Ru: How much?
Vender: name price
Ru: How much?
Vender: $250 Yuan (for a mug)
Ru: $10 Yuan
Vender: No
Ru: Ok, Bye
Vender: Ok! Ok! $10!!!
All in the span of 2 seconds. …

After success at the market we went to a migrant school in Shunyi. This school was started 4 years ago for orphans who are ineligible for government subsidies. They gave us a tour of the school. I have been to several orphanages in Morocco, Bulgaria, Croatia, Egypt and Ghana and this one was not as nice as some. The rooms were basic with metal bunk beds and a comforter, a locker for each child’s things, and they had decorated the white drab walls with crayon. They had no running water, and they washed their clothes by hand. When I looked in the medic room they had hardly any medical supplies. They only turned the lights on when absolutely necessary and while the children had coats, they needed hats and gloves---it was FREEZING outside. While we were there we painted a mural, played basketball and ran around. They were really sweet and nice, but I wished that everything were brighter and cleaner.
That night we had a dinner that Guy would have LOVED! It was everything Duck. Everything that can be made from a duck (right down to the webbing in their feet) was served at this dinner. We couldn’t “duck out of it!” (Thank you for that one Mandy! So funny!) And so we tried it all and then headed out to the mall for a break. The mall was fun because the style is so different. The colors, the window displays and even the fashion show happening in the lobby was all unlike our Nordstrom (etc) at home. We got hats and gloves so that we wouldn’t freeze at the Great Wall. It was fun to poke around town and be out at night. Beijing is HUGE and so downtown felt like NY!