Summary of Sunday, 10/6

For breakfast, we saved some money by eating instant oatmeal using water from our hot pot.  Hot pots are in most Chinese hotel rooms, and they almost instantly boil water when you plug it in.  We used these cool camping collapsible bowls that Matt's mom bought us to mix in the oatmeal and hot water and it was a quick, cheap breakfast.

We had to check out of the hotel after breakfast and meet our driver and guide with all of our bags since we'd be flying out later in the day.  It was a bit of a challenge to fit our 2 families and all of our luggage into 1 van, but our driver managed.

We drove straight to Tienanman Square which was very cool to see.  The square holds the mausoleum of Chairman Mao's body, the building where their current president and staff meet for planning, diplomatic meetings, etc, their National Museum, and the famous building holding the picture of Mao which is also the entrance to the Forbidden City.   Obviously, the thing Americans think of when they think of Tienanman Square is the showdown between the college students and the Chinese government.  However, because media is controlled by the government here, the Chinese people know nothing of the event.  So when they visit the square, they celebrate with patriotic pride the rich history of their country.

I had seen pictures of the Forbidden City but had never realized how huge it is.  I had it was just a few buildings, but it has building after building, and it encompasses 180 acres of space.   After we passed through 3 gates, we were finally in the outer courts. It is  such an odd feeling to see things so incredibly old. We saw the emperor's artifacts and thrones dating all the way back to the Ming dynasty.   The city contains 9,999 rooms because it was believed Heaven had 10,000 rooms, so it symbolized that the emperor felt he was only one tiny step below deity.  We also saw the empress' bedroom and her valuables.

Afterwards, we were taken to lunch again to the first place we visited.  The touring agency must get a deal there.  :).  It was good again, and pretty much the same as our first lunch in Beijing.  We were then taken to the airport at 2:00pm but couldn't check until 4:00 (for a flight that was supposed to leave at 6).  So we sat in a stuffy, overcrowded waiting room with our luggage waiting until we could get rid of it.  We took turns taking J,A, and their new friend Aubrey to the little shops. Matt bought me some chocolate and a Diet Coke. Ahhhhh- a familiar treat! .......  The boys had a couple of snacks too.  Little did we know that would be our dinner.  When we went to check in, they said our flight had been delayed and to check back in an hour or so.  After waiting longer, we were finally able to check in but our plane still had not arrived. So we waited a bit more. We were all offered dinner during our wait, but we had been warned not eat the food on domestic Chinese airline flights, so we all politely declined.   In the meantime, we got to see more squatty potties and interesting people in Beijing.  People would just squat in the floor to eat their lunches or snacks. It was fun to people watch during the wait and soak up the sights of Beijng while we could.

Finally our plane arrived and we were able to take off at about 8pm. It was a short 2 hour flight to Nanchang (pronounced Nanchong), which is the capital of Ellie Kay's province.  So we're only about 3 hours away from her right now!

After getting our luggage, we exited to find a taxi.  Since it was after 10 now, we were just tired and wanted to get some sleep. We had the name of the hotel written in Chinese with a note our last guide had written for us that said in Chinese, "Will you take us to our hotel?  Do you use the machine?"  Our guide had warned that taxi drivers try to rip off foreigners and ask them to use the money counting machine in the taxi that takes the amount of the going taxi rate.  As we exited, a group of taxi drivers came to greet us, and we showed them the note.   I pointed to the "machine question" and they all shook their head and walked away when they read that part.  So we were kind of stuck.  No one wanted to take us.  So finally we went with a guy who took us for 200 yuan (about $30 something for about a 20-30 minute drive to the airport). Not a bad rate compared to US taxis, but evidently we overpaid by 50-100 yuan.  We were told Nanchang drivers are worse than Beijing, so again I thought we were going to die before we reached the hotel.  We were just happy to finally get to our hotel.  After unloading/checking in, it was almost midnight when we got to our room.