Greetings from the glorious worker’s paradise. Much family happiness and long productive life wishes for you all!

We are in the nation’s capital of 22 million to spend a couple of days seeing the sights. Very gratefully, we have the services of a travel tourism company to handle all of the difficult bits – which is just about everything over here.
A company that Donny works with (whom we will visit in a couple of days) set us up with an agency that picked us up from the airport, set an itinerary, and basically took care of us 18 hours a day.

Our first stop was Tian’anmen Square. Here we are getting our bearings to start the day. The weather was cold in the mornings (upper 30s) but quickly warmed up to be in the 60s just after lunch. Very nice weather for walking around.
Jenny, our tour guide, was giving us the history of the square. As always in this most superior of nations, one choses their questions wisely and keeps their big yawps shut on a great deal of topics. Even so, we learned a tremendous amount and the locations here are absolutely worth seeing once in your life. The scale of majesty and modernism is jaw dropping.

In the square with the entrance to the Forbidden City in the background.

In front of the National People’s Congress . The Great Auditorium, the biggest hall in the entire complex, seats more than 10,000 people. It is here that the National Congresses of the Communist Party of China take place, and also where the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and the National People’s Congress (NPC) meet once a year. During these meetings the country’s fundamental political and social questions are discussed, and important laws and regulations decided upon.

Making our way to the Forbidden City; here the Chairman of the Board is definitely NOT Sinatra.

Waiting in a security line. Security was tough here.. several passport checks and metal detector/wand sessions. They’ve had some ahem unrest here in the past. The buildings of the Forbidden City are mostly made from wood and they do not want anything brought in that could cause a fire.

The ‘City’ itself is a series of palaces that was built over 400 years and was China’s seat of government over 5 Emperor dynasties. In total it is 180 acres in size and has 70 large palaces and almost 10,000 rooms. We spent 3 hours here and only saw a very small amount along the central spine of the complex.

Getting a history lesson. Jenny was very well versed. All of the names and dates spun around in our heads and quickly left.

Leaving the norther gate. The original City grounds extended well into the hills beyond (where you see more palaces) but we did not go on to see those. It was time for lunch and afternoon activities.

In the afternoon we drove to a nearby lake and walked around taking in the views. There is a nearby restaurant that the guide recommended after I told her that I wanted to eat Peking Duck in Peking!

And I got my duck. This version was served already sliced up. One would take one of the paper thin wheat “tortillas” from the center, add some of the duck skin and some of the meat, using the brown dipping sauce. Add veggies, roll it up and eat.

Afterwards we walked through some of the local neighborhoods on our way to Prince Gong’s Mansion.

This is Beijing’s largest and best preserved Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) property. We did not know anything about the history nor could we appreciate how important it is to the Chinese. Apparently this prince was a good guy and is well loved; many of his items (furniture) and rooms have become sites for pilgrimage. Chinese come from all over the country just to see the place, touch the wood of the buildings walls and beams & etc. For me, it seemed as if half of China was here the same time we were. It was too crowded to see much and I fear the importance of this hallowed ground was lost on us.

Yes, this place serves hamburgers made from donkey meat. No, we didn’t try it.

Our final stop of the day was a special request by the ladies – The Hong Qiao pearl market. This place is world famous and huge.. four floors of pearls and related jewelry. The quality of the product increases as you go up each level. Of course, we went right to the fourth floor to start the hunt. This is picture of the van we’ve been using this week to get around.

It was late in the day and we were the only customers at their top line vendor.. the attendants smelled blood in the water; Brenda and Meredith got a LOT of attention.
Donny is off in the background, far less interested. He’s looking over all of the famous previous customers – Queen Elizabeth, Thatcher, both Bush families, Putin and an endless list of royalty from Europe and the middle East.

Brenda did not leave empty handed. I guess the pearls here are of much higher quality and much cheaper than what you can get in the states. Pearls are pretty much “out” back home and with the youth, but they are still a foundation jewelry piece for the Chinese.

Time to turn in. Our view of Beijing from our room.