Visiting Tian An Men Square ~ May 29th

Standing in front of the Tiannamen Gate Tower

We ventured out to Tiannamnen Square yesterday. ( *Written at 1:45 am Monday) We were amazed at the number of cars on the road for a Sunday.  We bobbed and weaved between multiple lanes of traffic (and sometimes created our own lanes) to keep up with our friend's cab in front of us.  I had a seatbelt on the way there but was not so lucky on the way back.  Randy was impressed with the driving of course.  I know he could see himself having fun driving here.  Not so much for me :).

 A view of part of the square from the Tiannamen Gate Tower.  The entire
 square is large enough to hold one million people standing.

While the day was hot and humid, there was no blue sky at all.  It was gray with smog and looked more like a Vancouver rainy gray day but without the rain.  Quite sad really. Tiannamen Square was very impressive.  We didn't stand in line to see Chairman Mao's mausoleum as it would take 3+ hours.  We did go up the Tiannamen Gate Tower and had a good view of the square.  The architecture is amazing.  Randy and Henry had to wait in a long line for a security check while the women didn't have a long wait at all.

Walls of the tower

The entrance to the Forbidden City - this is as close as we got.

 A moat beside the Forbidden City

By the time we got to the Forbidden City we decided to forgo it and maybe come back another day.  We then walked to an area that our friends had been to before which had hutongs (traditional old Chinese homes) and ritzy shopping areas.  We also found a beautiful park.  It took us quite a while to find a taxi home but we did manage to flag some down eventually. 

A nice shopping/pedestrian street

Still a lot of bikes here

A beautiful park

 Interesting alleyways

The breakfast at the hotel is good - a great buffet with lots of choices that even satisfy my dietary requirements.  We also had room service for dinner which was good too.  It's now 2:00 am in Beijing as I write this and we are wide awake.  We're not sleeping well tonight which I guess is not surprising with jet lag and the excitement of what later today holds.  It will be a busy day today so we will try to go back to sleep soon, although we do need to be awake in just a few hours.  I'm sure adrenaline will kick in and keep us going.  Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.  We so appreciate them.  Our next blog will be about meeting Anna!

 Randy's first Coke in China :)

*Note from Susan ~ Although Julie and Randy can't view their blog in China, any comments you make here will be emailed to them directly. (Email also works.) Thanks! Also, clicking on any picture will enlarge it.  And lastly, rest assured that I'm checking my email frequently to update this blog ASAP! :)