on a tour bus at 8:30 and didn't get back to the hotel until after
6pm. Our group is so big that we filled every seat with the babies on
our laps. But the buses are like Grey Hound luxury full size buses
that are clean and smell good…at least until all those babies had been
there for a bit.
We went to a jade factory, the Great Wall, a cloisonné factory, and
the Birds nest stadium.
Impressions:
Jade is gorgeous but the good stuff is out of my price range. This
factory was government run to ensure the quality of the products but
we refrained from buying any. Others in our group are going crazy
buying "Chinese" stuff, but I'm saving all my money for the junky
plastic crappy toys that I know the boys are waiting for me to bring
home. (sigh)
The Great Wall: Yup, it's aptly named. It's pretty much the same as
all the pictures (go figure) but what is not possible to grasp is how
steep it is. Our guide suggested that when we got to the wall, we
could go to the right (steep) or to the left (steeper still). James
of course, wanted to go both ways and did so with Grace strapped to
his side and without even breathing heavy. I won't bore you with how
difficult it was for the rest of us normal folk but if you heard a
bunch of ambulances from the East around 11pm (your time) last night,
those were for me.
Cloisonné factory: A what? Yes that's what I said too. It's where
they make decorative items out of copper that look like porcelain.
The process is painstakingly intricate but the end result is worth
it. The best part is that it's impossible to break so no one had to
worry about the kids touching anything. Good for parents, good for
kids. My kind of factory.
The Birds Nest: Wow! Now that isn't anything like the pictures. I
really didn't like it that much when I saw it on TV (maybe that's
because it's named after the dish and I associate it with eating birds
nests…and what could be more gross than sticks stuck together with
bird spit?) But in all seriousness, the Olympics were good for Beijing
and the people have benefited in many ways. Just as an aside, a
couple in our group is from BC and told us that tickets to the Gold
metal hockey game for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver are going for
$35000 a seat. Who can afford that???? In Beijing, the government
regulated the vehicular traffic by limiting people to a specific day
of the week to drive and built numerous new subways to accommodate the
additional people. They left that policy in place and people are only
allowed to drive one day a week and on weekends. The obvious solution
for people here was to just buy 4 more cars. There are far too many
wealthy people here…maybe they'll be at the hockey game.
Grace, by the way, is a real trooper and has grown out of the bunting
suit we brought for her that fit just fine when we got here. That
might suggest why she's sleeping so well and why we're not. She
loves the other kids and hugs them without prompting and her cough
that was so bad when we first met her has cleared up quite nicely now
that we're in a mostly non-smoking environment. We are so lucky and
aren't having the heart wrenching transitional struggles that others
in our group are having and we pray that their children will find
happiness sooner rather than later.
But it sure doesn't take long to become attached to these little
monkeys. Pretty much like having your own…just a few days and you
wonder how you ever lived without them.
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