Jones Team Meets Chairman Mao

Given that we still have not been extended to stay in China longer than a year, Alex and I have been trying to squeeze in as much travel as we possibly can over our time in China. Also, the fall seems to be the nicest weather for travel regardless of where you want to go in the world (I remember when we were in Europe in the heat of the summer of 2006, we kept saying to ourselves that the vacation would be perfect had we gone in October).

So we went for a three day weekend in Beijing, home of the late Chairman Mao (who still resides in Tienanmen Square), the weekend before the girls and I returned to the US. We flew in on Friday morning, and after stowing our luggage at the hotel, went out for a walk to Tianamen Square and the outside of the Forbidden City. Alex and I had walked through Beijing’s Forbidden City in 2005, and since we took the girls to the smaller one in Shenyang the previous month, we elected to just salk the perimeter and check out the square instead of going inside. This was good a good idea, as each of our girls took a turn sleeping in the jogging stroller.






Here we are in Beijing!

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In front of the Forbidden City:

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Our Family and Chairman Mao (way to sleep through it, Lucia!)

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Magdalena making friends (pengyou):

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We returned in the mid-afternoon to our hotel room, relaxed for a bit, then walked to Wafuding street and gawked at the shoppers, bought some books with both Chinese and English in a bookstore that has been open since the 1920s (long for China!), and ate dinner in a relatively famous Peiking Duck restaurant at 5:30. Good thing we got there early, because the place was packed with a long wait by the time we left!







Here is Lucia loving the fountain at our hotel, the Regent:

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If you look very closely, you'll see that even the statue of the little boy to the right of Lucia has split pants!

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Mmmmmm... Peiking Duck (first restaurant outside, then the food):

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Afterwards, I bought some fruit from a little wagon across the street from the duck restaurant. It was the weirdest experience, because the stand was obviously owned by an old grandpa-type, but manned by him and a young man and woman in their 20s. There was a cardboard sign with a drawing of a camera with an X over it and the word NO! written on top. As I was bargaining for my grapes, the grandpa spied someone trying to take a photo of the stand – probably more for the sign NOT to take pictures than anything else! He hurried out from behind the stand and tried to take the camera from a bewildered tourist couple! As they protested, he pointed to his sign and kept saying No, No, No! I thought it was pretty funny, and when he got back I told him that I too wanted a sign that said no pictures of me!

The next day we left relatively early and walked to the Temple of Heaven. I had not been there before, though Alex had, and I expected it to be one temple on a small grounds. Instead, I found that it was several temples (though one primary one) on extensive grounds, and we spent a nice morning walking through the park. We find that we have to juggle between Lucia walking, Magdalena in the stroller, and Lucia in the stroller and Magdalena in the baby Bjorn. Lucia does not always like to walk too far, but Magdalena is getting a bit big for the Bjorn (24.6 lbs and 30 inches at her 1 year checkup, and Lucia is just over 40 inches and about 36 lbs). So when Lucia was tired, we took the subway back to the hotel. It is kind of annoying as there are not always escalators or elevators, so we end up double teaming to carry the stroller up and down flights of stairs. Some Chinese folks have helped us, and one foreigner, but for the most part people just kind of gawk at us as we struggle to get our kids into the subway.





Temple of Heaven:

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Not to be outdone, Magdalena wanted to "walk" up the steps too!

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Someone wanted a picture with Alex for a change!

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That afternoon we walked the other way from our hotel and through a hutong. This is the area of older concrete housing with bathrooms like rest stops on the highway. We think the little one-room homes have electricity but no plumbing, and apparently everyone uses the corner restroom. It was weird for me to see these hutongs right next to our 5 star luxury hotel – and right behind the façade of Bentley, Aston Martin, Rolls Royce, Lexus, Mercedes, and other luxury car shops – literally just down the alleys between stores! Very much a wealthy front on what seemed to be poorer back-streets. Weird.

Dinner that night proved to be a great learning experience. We decided to eat at an Italian place, and surprise surprise – when we asked the concierge for a recommendation, he said the best Italian restaurant was right there in the hotel! As soon as we were seated, we ordered a cheese pizza for the girls, knowing that they would need to eat pretty quickly. However, their pizza arrived just minutes after Alex and I ordered, and we were barely into our drinks (Alex finally got the martini he’d been craving, and we splurged on a way too expensive bottle of white wine) – when the girls had already finished eating. Great. Now what?

I took the girls out first to walk around – they were not interested in sitting still, needless to say. When I returned, Alex took a turn. As I sat at our table – alone, with my glass of wine – I realized that I was not having any fun. What a waste of time and money to spend nearly $150 on a meal just to have to eat alone and in stages because our kids are not ready for the fine dining experience! With this in mind, I went up to Alex, now holding the kids up to see the chefs in the kitchen – and asked if we could get our food to go and eat in the room where the girls could play. It turned out to be a great idea – we were able to dine in (relative) peace, and the girls just played on the floor in the room. Afterwards, we went to the top floor as a family and stared out at the view of the capitol city. This idea of eating in our room turned out to be so satisfying that we scavenged food from the breakfast buffet the next morning to do the same thing again. Ahhhh…. Able to sit and eat in peace without worrying about who is standing on the seat, who is throwing food off the side of her high chair, and who is whining and ready to go… I think this is our new MO!






Chillin' in the Hotel (Magdalena was already asleep):

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Sunday after our in-room dining, we walked to a park near the Forbidden City. This was so fun because there were all kinds of people out doing various recreation. There were yo-yo gurus, dancers, musicians, a choir, and even this funny version of Chinese rap – story-telling done with the aid of these little wooden clickers to keep rhythm. Our favorite was a boy about 16 or 17 – he really drew a crowd! Check out the video – he is really good!






On our walk to the park:

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View of the Forbidden City from the park:

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Also on Sunday I found two more panda hat like the ones I had bought on Friday night. The ones on Friday I negotiate down to 2 for 35 RMB (about US $5.25). However, at the park on Sunday I saw the exact same hats priced at 10 RMB each. Go figure! I bought two more, so we have one for each of the girls in our family, and I gave one to another mom who was asking me where I thought she could get them. Just goes to show that the price can always be beat here in China.





Magdalena's not so keen on her hat...!

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All in all, we had a great trip to Beijing. Though I like the city of Shanghai better (more western, not much staring) – I think that I enjoyed our trip to Beijing better, mostly because the weather was cooler but still dry and bright (October is such a great month for travel!). I’m glad we got that trip in before returning to the US for our fall vacation.


A funny sign -the Chinese characters are right (I think - someone who reads them can tell me) - but the English didn't turn out right when they put the panels together - Should have said "Beijing Cigarette Liquor Specialty Product Supermarket." Instead it reads "Beijing Cigaecialty Productrette Liquor Sp Supermarket." Ahhh... the glorious Lost In Translation!

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