Day One

Our schedule for the first day included a visit to Tiananmen Square, Mao’s Tomb, Hall of the People, and The Forbidden City. It was a beautiful day and the culture and history shared by Vivian, our guide, was very interesting. (Some Chinese people have chosen to have an English name in addition their Chinese name. Sometimes they’ll change it weekly.)

During tours in China, there are always visits to government factories. The purpose is to see the making of traditional Chinese products and hear “a lecture”. The lecture is usually an interesting tour of a small factory obviously created for tourists. Shortly however, you are escorted into a very large store selling the products. This day we toured a silk factory (it’s very cool how silk is made) and succumbed to purchasing a pure silk comforter. Even the stuffing is silk. The positive thing is that the US dollar goes a loooooong way in China!

Our last stop was the wondrous Summer Palace, containing beautiful architecture and the largest imperial gardens in China. After a ride on a dragon boat across Kunming Lake, we took off on our own to explore the nearby shopping district. It was our first taste of being alone in this strange and enchanting place.

Menus in China are most interesting. The menu at the restaurant on the first day included Fried Pork Stomach, Boiled Lamb Head, Fried Sea Cucumber, and Stir-Fried Intestines. Culinarily, we weren’t yet feeling that adventuresome! On our third day, we encountered what turned out to be our favorite item on the menu-- Camel with Cow Penis. No, we didn’t try it!

John took a lot of pictures of the ancient buildings as the architecture was very unique. The tiled rooflines and pagoda shapes were very beautiful against the blue sky. We were very lucky on this day, as the normal brown polluted air had been cleared away by the winds of the previous day.