China Day 1 (Saturday, April 2)

We arrived on what must have been the most beautiful spring day that Beijing has seen in a long time. The air was wonderfully clear, there were trees in bloom all along the highway from the airport into the city, the temperature was springtime warm and dry. We didn't arrive until late afternoon so we didn't do much beyond arriving at our hotel, but fortunately, the next day was equally nice.

China Day 2

Our daily itineraries were pretty full so Leslie and Cady had to adjust to the time change, 12 hours in their case, very quickly. They did very well in that regard. We had no time change since all of China, including Taiwan, is in one time zone. Our first day of touring had us meeting our guide, David, at 8 am sharp. The first stop was the Panjiayuan Market. It's a huge area with stalls full of antiques and books and handicrafts and junk. What a pleasure to see it all thrown together in one massive market.

Leslie, Cady and David look over old metal coins.

If only we could have figured out a way to ship these home. They're about 10 feet tall but would look great in any backyard.

Lee tried out the pan pipe, but chose not to bring one home.

Our next stop was the Lama Temple, also known as the Yonghe Temple, a Tibetan Buddhist temple built around 1700. It was the Tomb Sweeping holiday weekend (which coincides with our April vacation week) so it was pretty crowded but it's beautiful and it was worth the stop.

If I had a more nimble mind I would remember what the four languages are on this sign. One is Mandarin (second from the right) and one is Manchurian.

After the temple we went to a Hutong neighborhood for a look-around. These are the old neighborhoods where everyone lived before China decided to tear down the old houses to make room for skyscrapers and malls. When the government figured out that tourists (international as well as Chinese) wanted to see the old neighborhoods they started to preserve the last remaining ones and they help subsidize the people that live there.

The streets are so narrow that the best, and pretty much only way to get around is by foot and pedicabs.

We had lunch at a local family's house and got to listen to the mom of the household and her 7 year old daughter play the guzheng (Chinese zither).

This is our guide Tina's adorable one year old daughter, out for a bike ride with her Baba.

The last stop for the day was a delightful tea house where we were entertained by a young man who served us lots of kinds of tea and explained the process of how to make each one. Then he led us into the purchasing part of the shop and we obligingly bought lots of tea and tea cups.

Not bad for our first full day in China.