Day 1

Day 1:

I have to admit that while I am occasionally used to getting 4 hrs of sleep I don’t think that most of the kids are. We got into our hotel and to bed by 3 am our wake up call was for 7 am.

We have a buffet breakfast in our hotel and it is a mix of Chinese and Western cuisine. I was surprised as how many kids were willing to try noodles, dumplings and even congee with their bacon, eggs, and cereal. The coffee is just not quite the same! There is an Illy’s in the hotel so we can get some espresso if we like.

Speaking of the hotel, we are staying in a very massive yet beautiful 5 star hotel. There is even a bowling alley, cinema, and table tennis/squash court in it. I imagine most of the kids are not used to having such nice amenities.

Our first venture out was to the Forbidden City (also known as the Palace Museum). It was absolutely massive! 960 metres across and we almost the same distance in width. This is where many of the emperors lived when they were not staying in the Summer Palace. We were scheduled to visit Tieneman Square but unfortunately it was closed due to a Congress meeting that is taking place until the 15th of March. We did walk by it and get to see the building where Chairman Mao’s tomb is.

After lunch we went to a tea house called “Dr. Tea”. It is a government run tea house where people may come and have tea for free. We had a presentation on how to make Chinese tea and sampled 4 different types. We also got to see a “Pee Pee boy” in action – a small ceramic figurine used to determine if your water is hot enough – if you search for it on Google you will be quite surprised!

Then we went for a tour of the Olympic Park from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. We saw the big water cube and the bird’s nest stadium but other than that the park was pretty bare. I thought the Forbidden City was a large site until I saw the Olympic park. It must have been 5 km long by 2km wide.

Our first dinner was held at a fairly large restaurant in the city. It was quite interesting that after finishing our meal most everyone thought that we could find better Chinese food in Vancouver!

Back to the hotel and time to catch up on all that sleep we missed. Many kids we asking if they could go to sleep earlier than curfew/room check time as they were slightly exhausted.

Day 2;

Breakfast sausages are not the same in China. They look like wieners but have the consistency of bratwurst. Not what I expected when I opened the warmer. Coffee cream is non-existent. Each of our rooms has a slot on the wall beside the light switch where you can put your room key card. This also allows you to control the lights. What I didn’t realize was that if you take the room key out, the lights only stay on for 4 minutes after you leave the room. Oops…….sorry Mr. Peake!