3/12/11 - Day 3: Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City

Today was our last full day in Beijing. I can't believe we are packing up and weighing suitcases again, but tommorow we leave for Nanjing!

Even though both Mark and I have been to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City, they are still awesome and breathtaking. The history is so interesting and so important for to know and try to understand. Unfortunately, our guide Mi Nan "quizzed" us on some of this history and was disapointed that we had forgotten some of the things that she told us a year and a half ago.

The kids did great (considering that to them, it probably sounded like "blah, blah, blah, smile for the picture, blah, blah, blah ...").

There is an important meeting going on now next to Tianamen Square and there was a lot of security, soldiers, and police. Bennett and April were fascinated by the soldiers.

Posing in Tianamen Square

April riding in style through the Forbidden City

4 Star Public Toilet (and it was!)

After the Forbidden City, we headed out for a wonderful lunch. I believe that the restaurant serves Taiwanese food ("Tai Wan" on the side window), though there are also the letters FLK on the sign above the Chinese letters.

We ended up in a private room and enjoyed an eggplant dish, beef satay, sesame chicken, sweet and sour pork (nothing like what we order from our local Chinese restaurant), and tofu in a spicy sauce. Apparenty the medium spicy was lost in translation and the tofu dish came with some firey red peppers.

After over-indulging, a walk was definitely in order. We took a stroll along the Wang Fujing pedestrian mall (every high end shop you could ever imagine) and then turned the corner to the bazaar street (stall after stall of verndors selling food, souvenirs and very scary things on sticks).

Obligatory "bugs on a stick" picture (this is a picture of the prepared stick before it is placed in the deep fryer and yes, the bugs are still moving).

Photo op on the Wang Fujing Shopping street

We spent some time in the hotel room this afternoon so that Bennett and April could work on their homework. Bennett's teacher will be emailing me each week while we are in China with the topics that will be covered in Kindergarten that week as well as what homework will be assigned.

April jumped right in and started plugging away. Bennett on the other hand tried to come up with some good reasons why homework was not a good idea or could not be done. For example:
- we don't have our homework notebooks (they both have brand new notebooks to complete their assignments when they are away)
- This is boring (have to agree with him on some of the stuff)
and my favorite:
- There is no homework in China ... (haha, if he only knew)

Mark, Renee and Al (Grandma & Grandpa) headed out to grab some dinner. Bennett asked to go to sleep @ 7pm (after his dinner of convenience store muffin and drinkable yogurt). April wasn't too far behind after her dinner of ramen noodles ... can't beat Ramen in a pinch!

The countdown to Carter has begun. Only 2 more sleeps until we meet him! That is assuming our Princess is more cooperative and lets us sleep tonight. April is very excited but is getting more and more nervous as we get closer to Nanjing. She is looking forward to seeing her old baby home and Ms. Tang, but is very concerned they will expect her to speak Chinese and she does not remember any Chinese beyond a few words.