Beijing Part One

It really feels like our first day in China was equivalent to 3 days. Days 2 and 3 weren’t quite so full, but worth a summary, so here it is. We left Mudanjiang in the morning and travelled back to Beijing, where we met, Cindy, our city guide for Beijing (as opposed to our trip guide, who will be with us as we travel to the different cities). She got us checked in to our hotel and then left us alone for the afternoon and evening. We unpacked a bit and then headed out for lunch and our first adventure. Beijing is a big city and accustomed to hosting Westerners, so it definitely feels relatively easy to navigate and it was much more of a tame adventure. We went to a mall to eat and, other than very different types of restaurants, it was basically a mall. We rested a bit and then headed back out to walk around a bit more.

Not far from our hotel is a walking street with a lot of shops. We meandered around there, and then headed to one of the side streets we’d been told about in order to check out the strange offerings. After our visit there, we refer to it as Crazy Street. It is a packed alley, tons of people, and booths on every side. The main alley has a bunch of food booths with all sorts of wild edibles on sticks or in bowls – scorpions, silk worms, seahorses, starfish, squid, snails, and other stuff – either grilled, deep fried, or in a soup. Some are a novelty, but many aren’t… it is what some people want to eat. Jenna and I thought we’d actually try something, but once we got there and saw these critters wiggling around, we knew we weren’t trying anything. By the time we got out of there, we were overstimulated on all sensory levels. People were crowding in around us, pushing and bumping from all angles. The vendors were yelling, hawking their goods. The smells varied from grease to smelly feet to dead fish, and every combination of those. And, seeing a stick full of wiggling scorpions doesn’t make one hungry.

After the visit to Crazy Street, and some general browsing around, we decided we were done with adventure and headed back to the hotel. We came back to the room and changed into our swimming trunks and spent some time in the pool area. Then, back in the room we played some games and wrapped up the evening.

In the morning we met the rest of our tour group. It is always a little awkward when first meeting people, and this was no exception. The rest of the group had just gotten in the night before, so they were still battling jet lag. We did some introductions and started trying to remember names. Very shortly afterwards, we piled into the bus for our day trip.

This was the Great Wall day. We took a 90 minute ride out of the city to the Great Wall and spent about 2 hours hiking around it. We all got an incredible workout with some steep stair climbs up the wall! After that, we all went out to lunch where the kids sat at one table and the adults at the other. We all got a chance to get to know each other and learn a bit more about our families. On the way home we got a nice driving tour of the Olympic Village, the Birds Nest, and the Water Cube. It only made us want more; I think we’ll start saving for the 2020 Olympics.

Only part of our current group will be continuing on together after Beijing. Two of the families will be going on a river cruise together and another one of the families will be heading off to their orphanage visit. It was great hearing about everyone’s adoption experiences and life now. Several of the families are very involved with other Families with Children from China (FCC) groups. In Anchorage, that group has dwindled quite a bit, but as we talked about things I realized just how diverse Anchorage is and how lucky we are. There are so many of our friends that have adopted kids, especially from China, that I wonder if our kids think it is normal. Our kids have been raised with their cousins, who are adopted from China, and have friends that are adopted or have younger sisters that are adopted. I wonder how their world view of things will be affected; I hope for the better.

As we made plans for dinner, we came across a couple folks from our group having a drink, trying to stay awake and beat the jet lag. We joined them for a drink and dinner together, with the kids going off and doing crafts and games. We ended up eating dinner there in the hotel and enjoying a relaxing evening.

Tomorrow we will go to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. These are must-dos for any Beijing visit, but I also feel the desire to get out of Beijing and move on to smaller cities. Obviously, smaller is relative. Beijing has about 28 million people, so a city of 3-4 million would be much smaller. Until next time!

The entrance to Crazy Street

Anyone hungry?