Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Martha Stewart

After a full day of touring, you'd think normal people would take a rest! Not the world wide Weldens! Our travel agent had set up a dinner that included a private Chinese shadow puppet show! The show was interesting, mostly about dragon slaying, ( I think ). They had a small "band" playing Chinese music while the play was going on, almost like Chinese opera music. It was most unusual and the children enjoyed it. Actually, there was so much noise coming from our private dining room that some traveling businessmen asked that our drapes be opened so they could watch the show as well! We obliged and they had fun too. In the pictures here, you can see the shadow puppets and the artists trying to help the children have a "go" at it for themselves.

The big gong in the picture played a big part in the music and caused most of the noise.

Kathleen isn't scared of anything. She may not like it, but she is willing to try it. We were served somewhere between 10 and 12 different things. Nicholas was looking for bread! They told him they could make a hamburger. When the hamburger arrived it looked more like a club sandwich with meat that looked a lot like the pressed patty you'd get at a Krystals. He didn't love it.


Nicholas acting like he is enjoying the meal. He is a good actor! You will see later that his being hungry was good and bad.

On the ride back to the hotel, there was a night food market set up in the middle of a street. There must have been 40 stalls of different food. Kathleen and Charles wanted to stop. Nicholas wanted KFC and I wanted a cup of coffee to try and warm up. Although we were inside for dinner, the building we were in was old and not well insulated. I was cold. We decided that if Charles and Kathleen had Nadia with them they could get out of our van and enjoy looking at the food market and maybe even find a KFC for Nicky. We split up here about 3 blocks from the hotel. The driver took Nicholas and me back to our beautiful hotel. We stayed at The Peninsula Hotel Beijing. It was lovely! There were wonderful stores in the lobby, Gucci, Prada, Chanel, even a Tiffany's. I convinced Nicholas that window shopping would be fun, so off we went. We made our way around and got all the way over to the lobby bar area when I had a celebrity sighting! Sitting right there, 10 feet away, was Martha Stewart. She was in a meeting mode with several others. My first thought was, Charles has my camera taking pictures of food and I need it to get a picture of Martha Stewart!!! Nicholas and I walked around keeping an eye on Martha and finally decided to go in the bar area and get a cup of coffee. I ordered a $7.00 cup of coffee and Nicholas ordered an $8.00 milkshake. Chinese people do not know how to make milkshakes, so that was money not well spent, live and learn. I drank the coffee as slow as possible waiting for Kathleen and Charles to come into the hotel with my camera. Martha's meeting of sorts started to break up and she went off window shopping herself. Some of the stores were still open but she did not go in any of them to my regret. Nicholas went to the front desk and got a piece of paper to get her autograph. I had a Sharpie in my "lifebag", so he was set. The problem was that Martha was headed for the elevators! I told Nicholas it was now or never, the camera was not going to be here. He darted toward the elevators and as the elevator doors were closing, with Martha and her secretary inside, Nicholas stuck his 9 year old arm into the doors and caused them to reopen!! He apologized for stopping them but asked her f he could have her autograph. I was holding my breath from a distance. She got off the elevator and was LOVELY!! She asked Nicholas if he lived in Beijing. He said "No ma'm, I live in Alabama". This made no sense to her at all and she said "what are you doing in Beijing." Nicholas said, "I'm on a cruise." She must have been smart enough to realize he was on an excursion from the ship because she did not ask any more questions. She told him he was a very cute boy and very lucky to have a chance to see China. She then told him that she had an earlier bedtime than he did and was headed to bed. She gave him a nice autograph and a hug. Kathleen and Charles missed it all and I did not get any pictures of her but I do have the pictures they took of their adventure while Nicholas and I were meeting Martha Stewart. Oh, by the way, Martha had on a black pant suit, probably Chanel, a single strand of pearls and sensible black shoes. Her hair was in a simple bob cut as always and she was looking very fit. Any tabloid that shows her bloated and ugly are printing bad information. She looked great and was very sweet to Nicholas!

Look at what Kathleen and Charles were up to! The stalls had everything you can imagine from normal food to the absolutley insane.



These are trays of squid, grasshoppers, locusts, scorpions, spiders etc...

In Alabama we fry most everything. Here they steam most everything. They even steam bugs if you prefer!





Here is a nice closeup of Grasshoppers. Don't they look tastey? Next summer when you have grasshoppers on you in the woods, try one!!

Most people scream and run from scorpions. Here they eat them. This is a nice display of scorpions for you. The tails are the delicacy!

You can count on Kathleen to try anything once. Here she is with her bug of choice, the scorpion! She said it was really crunchy and of course, "tasted sort of like chicken." YIKES!!!!!

Kathleen did not get far in this rikshaw. It was a bronze that she had to hop on for a photo.

Charles and Kathleen finally made it back to the hotel with my camera. I thought I'd at least get a picture of where we were when we saw Martha Stewart! Beautiful marble horses by the stairs in the lobby.

The flower arrangement behind Nicholas and Kathleen is all made of orchids!! It was magnificent! We had a big day ahead so we were off to bed.



This is the famous Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen Square is named after the Forbidden City's front gate, Tiananmen, ( the gate of Heavenly Peace ), it is located at the square's northern extremity. Built over 500 years ago, this gate now features a huge portrait of Mao Ze Dong, the communist leader and founder of their modern state. Opposite of the Forbidden City gate is Mao's mausoleum. The day we were there, their Parliment, of sorts was meeting and the square was closed to the public. We did not get to go look at the old dead communist leader, I was not disappointed. Not much is talked about the students march at the square in 1979. I asked our guide about it and she did not go into great detail but remembers it as being a bad week and ultimate blood shed for hundreds/thousands that were there.

You can see the gates set up to prevent anyone from getting into the square.

Here is the giant portrait of Mao. In real life he had a large mole on his chin. Our guide said they have taken the portrait down several times to try to improve the mole. The last time it was "fixed" they just airbrushed it out. Now it looks like an oversized pore on his face! To try to get a mental picture of the size of this portrait, look at the size of the people and the size of the archway into the Forbidden City. His portrait is over 30ft across and about 40 ft tall!

Mao looks tiny here. You can see the police officers to the left and behind the kids. There were police and military stoping many people and searching bags. We did not get stopped!! I guess the Chinese did not see my lifebag as a threat!

Inside the gates of the Forbidden City. It is enormous. This is the place where the Emperor lived and did not leave. There are reputed to be 9,999.5 rooms, half a room short of 10,000, which is said, is what the original Jade Emperor possesses in his Heavenly Palace. Commoners were never allowed inside the walls of the Forbidden City. Only dignitaries and guests of the Emperor were allowed and it depended on how important you were as to how far into the city you were able to walk. There are many gates to pass through. There is a definite division between the places in the city that the Emperor would entertain and his private quarters. Our tour company had the permission to take us to his private living area. Charles and Nicholas were worn out from the walking of the thousands of rooms and decided to get a Starbucks!! Yes, there is a Starbucks inside the Forbidden City now. However, many complained about it and they had to take down the sign, so unless you know it is there you would never find it as it blends into the walls of the city very well. They waited for us while we went to see the Emperor's private living area, even the toys the littlest Emperor played with. Unfortunately, they did not allow me to take photos everywhere but I did the best I could.

The dining room. All the original furniture, china, linens, rugs etc... It crossed my mind that if there were almost 10,000 rooms and no wall to wall carpeting then, there must have been a lot of rugs. Where were they now? I asked. It seems there is a huge storage area in a secret place I guess that houses most of the items that could deteriorate over time. This is where the THOUSANDS of rugs are. They have a team of individuals that are the caretakers of these items, so they will not lose their value and history. Can you imagine what those rugs would cost??!! The fixture over the table looked like it came from Venice. It had blown glass and there was a mirror that looked Venetian as well.

This is our guide, Laura. She was wonderful. She is a very excited Beijing tour guide. If anyone is headed there for the olympics, she would be a great choice to have as your guide. She brought us candy and panda gifts for the kids. She is full of excitement about her city and that made it fun for us.




Kathleen and Laura about to go into the Emperor's bedroom. No pictures allowed.





After the tour of the Forbidden City we were off to an old private home for lunch that included a private martial arts show. These guys were incredible! They could jump 5 or 6 feet into the air and do flips and turns and chop things in half and break things on their heads! An action packed performance for sure. The kids loved it.

The kids did their best impression of Bruce Lee in one photo. Another photo, we are inspecting a balloon and a plate of glass before the martial arts guy channelled his energy enough that he could push a pin through the glass and break the balloon on the other side. Quite amazing. The other photo, we are examining a piece of steel. This guy took that piece of steel, channelled his energy and broke that piece of steel over his head into three pieces! It was shocking. No blood and no ambulance was needed!

Here we go again, lunch the Chinese way. Kathleen trying to decide where to begin. Look at all the food!! This was an amazing meal. It is also where we got to visit with Diego about his walking the Great Wall. It seems he saw snakes on the wall and was bitten by a dog at one point. He was smart enough to have a shot to give himself in his backpack to ensure he did not contract rabbies from the dog. However, he knew he only had one more shot left and it had to last him. He saw many more dogs but was careful to always be carrying a big stick. He was very interesting. His webpage is www.thegreatwalk.com He said it is a work in progress but you might want to look at it. He also did a walk from Nepal to Tibet! Very interesting guy.

After lunch we had to head to the airport to fly to Xian, China. There we were to see a sight Charles has wanted to see since they were unearthed, The famous Terracotta Warriors!! We had a great time in Beijing and would like to thank Nadia and Laura for making it so special for us. Although it was freezing weather, it was a trip of a lifetime, THANK YOU!

A shot out of the window as we said goodbye to Beijing...and the snow!!!!