Early morning

Today Nicole, Emelia and I (Molly) woke up extremely early at 4 am to go out to Tiananmen Square to watch the flag raising. We went to Sivana and Lauren’s room to get them, but they weren’t ready yet so we headed downstairs to play cards while we waited. Once we were all there, Ms. Lee took the 5 of us out walking on the streets of Beijing. We walked in the dark, in the drizzling rain while we talked and finally had a chance to observe Beijing ‘at night’. Once we could see Tiananmen Square, we had to figure out how we would get over to the edge of the crowds. We walked all the way across the square, only to discover hundreds of people crowded around, waiting for it all to start. We tried to fight our way to the front of the crowd, but with little success. We eventually had to back up a bit until we could see most of the flag and the Tiananmen Gate with Mao’s picture on it. Then, the national anthem of China began playing, and the flag was slowly raised up the pole. After the flag reached to the top, we finally had a chance to push the front of the crowed, before we turned back around and headed back towards the other end of the square, where Mao’s body lay in his mausoleum. The line to see his body was huge – it almost stretched halfway around the building, and was getting longer by the minute. We then began walking back towards the hotel, but we soon stopped to have some breakfast. Ms. Lee took us first to a vendor selling egg-pancake-type breakfast burritos, which were amazing. Then she took us to a small street shop/restaurant, where we had pork buns (which looked sort of like dumplings) and hot soy milk. The food was delicious, and barely cost anything. We then had to head back to the hotel, walking all the way, to get ready for the rest of the day ahead. Later in the day, we’ll be doing tai chi with a master, visiting the Temple of Heaven, and finally climbing the Great Wall. We’re all so excited for the rest of the trip, and are off to Xi’an tomorrow morning.

Okay, to continue, we just got back and finished packing for our flight to Xian tomorrow, after a looooong day of walking and hiking and sightseeing. WOW. after tiananmen, we headed to the Temple of Heaven for tai chi, which was so amazing and relazing - the old women teaching us was so cute! then we milled around for while, playing hackeysack and then walked to look at the pagodas and temples of the Temple of Heaven - such amazing and colorful architecture! then we were off to the Ming tombs, where there were many chances to take fun candids with animal statues along the Sacred Way. Then, was lunch, which of course was great. After that, we had a really cool trip to the Cloissonne (?) factory, where we learned the whole process and could ecven purchase some real art. Next, was the highlight of the day - the Great Wall! It's absolutely huge - walking up all those stairs was exhuasting, but making it to the top made us all feel so good. We then walked back down (trust me, this took a loooong time - im only writing this so quickly because im sleepy...), to head back on the bus to the Silk Market. What an experience! Bargaining and haggling is quite interesting - learning to choose prices and find what you REALLY like definitely takes time and practice, but is so worth it in the end when you really get something you like, for a really cheap price. Our last part of the day was a late dinner, where we were all exhausted and sore from the whole day, but we had to save some energy to pack for our flight tomorrow to Xian, to begin the next leg of our amazing journey! I apologize for the skimpy details - I trust nicole did a better job of the stories from our long, tiring, exciting day ;]

love to all, molly.