Beijing - Thursday - Adoption Day!

Today we went to Tienanmen Square. Our guide, Jonathon, told us it is the largest square in the world. Jonathon also told us it's said that 1 million Chinese could stand in the square...or 500,000 Americans...or 2 million Japanese. Jonathon and my Dad joke around together. One building has the mausoleum of Mao Zedong, and another has a large poster with his picture on it. The square was quite crowded with lots of tourists and was decorated for the Olympics.

Then we walked under the street to the Forbidden City. It was forbidden because common people couldn't enter it. Most of the walls were red, and there were several courtyards before we actually entered the City. There are almost 1,000 buildings, and it was home to 24 Emperors over 2 dynasty's.

After a traditional Chinese lunch we went to a silk factory to see how silk is made and how strong the silk fiber is. Dad bought me a silk embroidered dragon for my room.

Then we we went to the Temple of Heaven. I thought was neat how the temple was built symbolically. It is a circle that represents the Heavens, surrounded by a square that represents Earth. The levels of the temple have pillars representing 4 at the top level for the 4 seasons, then 12 on the next level representing the 12 months, then 12 on the lowest level representing the 12 parts of the days. There are 360 banisters around the temple to represent the 360 degrees in a circle. We walked a lot today.

We went back to our hotel for a short rest. I played Scrabble with Dad - he won. Jonathon & Yao (our driver) picked us up for a traditional Chinese dinner and then a Chinese Kung Fu show. It was like a play with a story and some singing, but it had real Kung Fu moves. I liked it - it was exciting, entertaining & cultural. Best of all, it was in English.