We made it !!!

When we last posted, we were getting ready to board our LONG flight from Chicago to Beijing. Well, everything went well with that flight. We left on time and arrived in Beijing about 12 and a half hours later (by our watches it was a bit over 12 hours, but it was 12:30PM Chicago time on Tuesday when we left, and it was 2:30PM Wednesday, Beijing time, when we arrived). None of us had been able to get much sleep on the flight, and since we had been traveling for about 20 hours by the time we got to China, we were all feeling pretty rough.















So, we had the guide that had met us at the airport take us to our hotel to drop off our luggage. She then took us to a nearby restaurant for a quick dinner, and then we returned to the hotel to try and get caught up on our missed sleep.




Thursday morning we started a few days of touring to get over our jet lag and to let Natalie and Marissa see some of the famous sites in Beijing that they had not gotten to see before (or were too young to remember when they had been there before).

We started by taking a quick look at the new Beijing performing arts center. Then we walked to the nearby Tiananmen Square (the largest public square in the world). Here's a pic of the whole crew in front of the Great Hall of the People, where China's government officials meet. (On the west edge of Tiananmen Square.)





From Tiananmen Square we walked to the Forbidden City and spent several hours touring that amazing complex where China's emperors had lived over 600 years ago.

After lunch we toured a "silk factory" where they showed us how silk was made by silkworms and then tried to sell us everything you can imagine made from silk.

By late afternoon we were all feeling very tired, so we returned to the hotel for a little food and a lot of rest. Tomorrow, we'll be back at it again.

In the meantime, we need a little help. We're really trying to be good tourists as we visit China, but our jet-lagged brains just can't seem to understand what it is we are suppose to do. Any ideas ???