Back for more Beijing and Bye Beijing

Day three in Beijing.  Have I mentioned how much I like it here?  And I know I haven't even scratched the surface of it.  We had a leisurely morning and then set out for Tiananmen Square.  It was bigger than I had imagined and even more crowded.  Just like the thousands of Americans who come to visit the Capitol building, thousands of Chinese come each day to Tiananmen Square.  

This enormous, gigantic humongous flower/ fruit basket sort of stole the show as it was in the center of the Square.  But it's not always there- it's decoration for China's National Day which was last week and is recognized this entire month.  I'm so glad we got to see it.

There's Chairman Mao's picture way back there.

The monument behind us recognizes China's fallen heros (servicemen) and the large building behind that is The National Museum which our guide said is their history museum.  It serves as one side of the square.

The flowers were made up of individual pits of yellow mums and red poinsettias.

This is directly across from The National Museum and this is their Parliment building.  Pictures do not do justice to the scale of these buildings.  The size of Tiananmen Square is incredible.  We stood out as some (I didn't see any others but I'm sure there were) of the only Americans and again, the girls probably posed for 12-15 pictures with strangers.  They never ask for me and Brad....even we we offered. 

Afterwards we headed to a silk factory.  We learned about the life cycle of the silkworm - they grow from eggs to adults in just 25 days!

And we got to see some up close eat Mulberry leaves (their favorite).  Just like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, they eat constantly for 25 days and then stop.  Then they create a cocoon of silk around their bodies and emerge as a moth that I turn mates and lays eggs.  The coccon is where we get the silk.

Then we saw how they harvest the silk by boiling the cocoon to soften it, delicately brushing it to get a thread of silk started and then allowing a machine to unravel the rest.

There are also double cocoons with two worms and more than twice the amount of silk.  They harvest this silk by hand and braise of its special weight, it's used for denser products like pillows and comforters.

Next we headed to The Temple of Heaven.  This gorgeous building and surrounding park was built in 1420 by the reigning emperor as a temple to worship the God of Heaven for plentiful harvest.

There is so much symbolism and meaning in every aspect of this building.  For instance, the building is round to represent Heaven but the wall around it is square to represent Earth (the belief at the time).  

The colors are exquisite!  My iPhone pics just don't do it justice. 

Blue is to represent Heaven and green for the Earth.  I love this design!

Red is for good luck and gold was reserved for the Emperor - no other house could have gold on it.

I have more pictures of the grounds surrounding the Temple but loading pictures is a chore here.  There were people dancin for exercise, children running and playing, and many older adults gathered in groups to play cards.  It was a beautiful park!

Baby this time we were so hungry!  And I didn't want to leave Beijing without trying its most famous dish- Peiking Duck.

We got a feast!!  A feast that included every part of the duck you can imagine. I can say I tried it all but I can't say I loved it all.  So glad we tried it!

Meanwhile, these two.  Only one tried anything duck related.  Brad and I are just so thankful they love fried rice- they've eaten it twice a day for here days now!!

While there is still so much to see here, we decided to come back to the hotel for some quality time as a family.  We said good-bye to our guide and new friend Jack and left him with a red Arkansas State shirt.  Which cracked me up since he had never heard of Arkansas.  (He knew more about America than I may ever know about China!)

We took the girls swimming and then spent dinner sharing our favorite parts of Beijing and how we are feeling about the next part of our trip.  For me, these last few days have been such a blessing.  Exactly what I had hoped for, we were able to rest, learn, and laugh together.  We made some wonderful memories and it's really felt like a vacation.  At the same time, it's not the reason we came to China so it's also been a bit surreal to go about these days so normally when I want to hurry them up to get to James.  Tomorrow, Sunday, we will fly to Chongqing and settle in to our hotel.  We will sleep one night and wake up to go meet James.  I can't wait!  And yet, I can't believe its really happening.  Overwhelmed with a flurry of thoughts and emotions, I am thankful to be this close to bein united with my son.