Dec 11th 2009 China

Didn’t sleep very much last night. Got into the hotel and I had to figure out how to turn the lights on. You put your hotel key into this slot by the door and it turns the lights on.The toliet was different too. You don't have a handle but a push botton on the top. The air in Beijing was so bad. It was foggy and the fog didn't help the pollution. But once the fog lifted the smell was much better.

Went to bed around 12:30 am but I slept for a hour and was up for a hour. Then at 6am there was someone out side that was yelling till 6:15am. Why I don’t know.

From there we met the other couple Dave and Debbie and Debbie's sister Lynn. They got a referral of a boy too but in the special needs program. After breakfast we met with Sim, our tour guide and the 5 of us loaded into this huge tour bus.

Our first stop was the Forbidden City. Which is where Chinese Emperiors in history lived. Then we went to a pearl factory. Summer Palace was next. That was ok and then we went back to the hotel. Don and I decieted to explore on our own so we went to a grocery store for soda, and shopped in a couple of the small clothing shops on the way back to the hotel. We were in walking distance when we went off on our own.The grocery store was different. Soda at the hotel was 33 yen and in the supermarket is was 2.25 yen. On the way looking for the soda I noticed that the meat for sale is not packaged like it is in the US. The meat was cut up and tossed into bends when you pick out the meat and bag it. The supermarket had what I think was fruit that I had never seen before…..And of course all the food on the shelves were in Chinese. The only way I knew I was buying Coca Cola was the bottle was about the same shape and it said Coca cola. Hahaha The shopping in the clothing shops was kinds funny because I was not and still am not familiar with how they do theirbv sizing that and the fact that the lady did not know any English and the only word I know was Thank you. I was able to buy a jacket for my Neice and I hope it fits. Got back to the hotel and we ordered fired rice from the little restaurant in the hotel and then went to bed.

Oh while touring today I was interduced to Chinese street venders.You tell them no and they stay by your side and walk with you trying to make a deal along the way. Funny story> This lady walked up to me and asked me if I wanted to buy a Jucci purse ( of course I knew it was fake ) But that was one of the things that someone wanted me to pick up in china. So she started out a 200 yen and I got her down to 120 yen which is about 20 dollars. Then she came up to us and asked to have a different 100 yen bills because the one we gave her was ripped. So Don gave her a new one. On the bus Sim, our tour guide told us to watch for the street vendors switching money. So we looked and the 100 yen that we got back and had to exchange was not Chinese money but was actually Taiwain Money which looks very close to Chinese but worth about 25% of Chinese money.Lessoned learned. Now we know what to look for and what to watch out for.

Oh my when I went to the forbidden city I had to go to the bathroom and I opened the stall and I was in shock. They didn’t have a normal toilet like in the US. They had like a flat toilet that was on the floor that you squat and do your thing. For anyone that is adopting. When You are out touring make sure you have toilet paper. Most tour places don’t have any.But every restaurant that I have been to so far has had some.