Beijing Touring...Day1

Our day started at 9am with a bus ride to take a Hutong Tour.  The Hutong is an old community where rooms(homes) surround a courtyard.  It is a place where generations of families will live.  Much was torn down to build the structures for the Beijing Olympics.  Theses are the only ones left now, and are protected by China, as a historic area. The property is worth millions, should the owners choose to sell. When we arrived there, we all got in Ric Shaws to tour the area.


 In the area we saw, there were also businesses.  Below is a picture of a man selling vegetables on the street from the back of his van.  When he was done, he left all of the garbage in the street.

Here is a picture of Eric and I in the courtyard of the Hutong Home we visited,.   

 Here is a picture of the Kitchen in the home that we visited.  Each room around the courtyard served a different purpose...kitchen, sleeping quarters, living room etc....

 Here we are about to enter the Forbidden City.  This is the entrance with a huge photo of Chairman Mao.  The Forbidden City is where the Emperors lived.

 Here we are in the inside.  There are various gates you pass through that take you further and further in to see all the different buildings.  The one below is the entrance of the Palace.  There were so many people.


This is one of two lions that guard the entrance to the palace.

 Here we are with some of our travel group at dinner this evening.  since we do not speak Chinese, and the servers do not speak English, you point to the picture on the menu of what you want to order.  We had 3 huge dishes that cost about $10 USD.

 Here is a picture of a squat potty...your feet go on each side and you do your business in the hole.  I did NOT use it...only took a picture.  This was one of the cleaner ones I have seen.  You also do not flush your toilet paper, but rather put it in the waste basket.

 We visited a silk factory and this girls was explaining the process of it to us and about the life of a silk worm.