The Belk Family:Somewhere Out There: Saturday, July 20- Sightseeing in Beijing Day!

Saturday, July 20 - Sightseeing Day!

The day started with us going to the free breakfast here at the hotel. By the way, this hotel is beautiful. The breakfast was awesome, Dustin really enjoyed it. It had both American and Chinese food. Again, Dustin was more adventurous. I had the American breakfast; waffles, bacon, fruit, etc. Dustin ate congee, fried vegetables, fried sweet potato, Chinese bacon and Chinese sausage. I did try the congee since that is what the orphanage feeds the children, to me it had no taste, but Dustin said it wasn’t that bad.

After breakfast, we skyped home to David Ryan. He was a little sad this time, he even started crying but not cause he missed us. He had a boo boo on his foot and wanted me to give him a band aid. We talked to them a little this time since we were well rested. Then, Dustin skyped his parents who also invited his grandpa to join the conversation and that was interesting for his grandpa to see that kind of technology.

Then, we meet our travel group and our travel guide “Nancy” (who was awesome) for a day of sightseeing. It was exciting meeting people from all over the US from our travel group. One family I met through Facebook so it was interesting meeting her and her husband in person. They are from Idaho and are adopting a two year old boy. We took a bus to Tiananmen Sqaure and it was crazy crowded. Remember it is National Holiday so everyone in China comes here for their vacation. Our guide said it isn’t normally that crazy. Disney World has nothing on this place. We took plenty of pictures. We also toured the Forbidden City, which was really neat. We had our travel group picture taken here. Dustin really enjoyed the tour since he is a big history buff. I had a little Chinese girl about 8 years old that wanted her mom to take my picture with her, then the mom had Dustin to use her camera take a picture with her and me. I guess they wanted a picture the skinny American. I am going to let Dustin tell you more about the Forbidden City.

Here is Dustin:

Hello everyone! I'm going to explain our trip to Tiananamen Square and Forbidden City. As a history teacher I was MUCH more excited than Emily. The bus ride was fairly short but as we pulled up the first thing we realized was all the people. Tiananamen Square once held over 1 million Chinese citizens and today was a great visual of how that may have looked. Our guide held a little blue flag attached to a 3 ft. rod for everyone to keep an eye on to not get lost during the tour. Luckily no one was lost during the tour. As we walked around the square our guide pointed out Chairman Mao's tomb. Chinese citizens were lined up to see his body. Our guide said Chinese citizens would stand in line for over 2 hours to have 5 min visit with Mao's body. Not sure many Americans would be so eager and patient to see George Washington's body, but an interesting bit of info to say the least. The square was HUGE. We took a group picture in front of the Forbidden City and then proceeded to the front gate to enter. Our guide shared many stories about the Forbidden City that I can share with you, but I'll just share one of the most interesting ones. There are thresholds throughout the city made out of a huge piece of wood (about the size of a rail road cross tie). There is a Chinese tradition NOT to step on but OVER the threshold. Chinese believe the threshold is the shoulder of the city/family/emperor, so stepping on it would be like bringing down the city/family/emperor. Chinese are very superstitious. Women step over with right foot first and men always with left.

Ever been to see the pandas at the Memphis Zoo? Remember the entrance of Asia? It is designed after the Forbidden City. The two lions at the entrance have meaning as well. You will always see two lions at the entrance to important buildings. One with a foot on a ball and another with a foot on a small lion. One is female and other male. The male is always on the left (as you exit the building) and the female is always on the right. Why? Because women are always right. Emily got a kick out of that little fact. The Forbidden City is made up of over 110 acres of land. It seemed to never end and was beautiful with detail throughout the attraction. Even the ground was made with individual bricks. The city was completed in 1412 and is still in wonderful shape today. If you want more stories of this part of our trip just ask me when I'm home. I could talk forever about this, but I realize not everyone enjoys history as much as I do.

SNACK STREET (very interesting experience)

One of my goals was to be a little adventurous while here in China. I told myself I would at least try to eat a scorpion. This changed a little when even our tour guide recommended no one to eat anything from snack street. So what is snack street you may ask? It is about a three block stretch of street vendors that sell everything from dumplings and noodles to octopus, starfish, scorpions, bugs, etc. (let the mind go wild here and you'll not be exaggerating, trust me).

Even with my guide giving that information I still tried to tell myself I was going to try a scorpion. This all changed when we turned the corner to snack street. The smell of the "rotten" tofu was the worst smell and most horrendous smell Emily and I both have EVER smelled before. Just the smell itself made Emily queezy to her stomach. There were people lined up and eating everything they had to offer. There was NOTHING on the menu ANY American would find appetizing. We walked all the way to the end of the street and back and was ready to return to the hotel. Emily was so queezy we didn't wait for the rest of our group to finish their walk. We had to get away from the awful smell. Definitely a unique experience.

Here's Emily again. Also, today we received an update on Sophie. She loves rice, steam vegetables, meat, bananas, and pears. She doesn't like apples. She loves to play with dolls and blocks. She isn't fond of strangers. She is quiet and shy. She is potty trained. She weighs 22 lbs. She was with a foster family, but they returned her to the orphanage on June 25, 2013 to prepare for the adoption.

So, she has been through a lot changes already. Pray for her as she goes through yet another change as she is thrown to complete strangers on Monday. We also got two new pictures (most recent).

Tomorrow we leave for Guangzhou, which is where Sophie is from. We are getting closer to getting our daughter!

Pictures of today:

My first Chinese Dish: