Silk Factory

Who knew little bugs made something so beautiful? We toured a silk factory and got to see the process of the silk worms generating yards and yards of delicate little fibers.

National Day

We are lucky enough to be here during one of the most important Chinese holidays, National Day. It is officially October 1st, but the Chinese take a full week off to celebrate this day. (Even the banks are closed for a week!!!) On this day in 1959 Chairman Mao declared a unified China.

The Temple of Heaven was more alive than usual with music everywhere and people dancing and playing. You can tell they greatly enjoy this time and are proud of their country.

Eat that?

We've been perfectly delighted with our menus on this trip, even going so far as to comment that we must have very authentic Chinese food at home because so much tastes the same!


Enter the preserved eggs. We came across these little gems yesterday morning at breakfast.


At lunch yesterday, we were introduced to sheep's spine, a local delicacy where you don a plastic glove to literally break the spine in half and suck out the bone marrow. Oh and of course you can also enjoy the shards of flesh hanging off the bones. Yum.

Our last course at lunch was lotus root. It looked scarier than it tasted and was almost like an orange flavored radish.
Yesterday we took 3 pepto bismols.

Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven is where the Emporer would make offerings to the Jade Emporer where he is believed to have descended from. It was said that during this ceremony the Emporer's divine power would allow him to see, feel and hear things that mere mortals would not. Standing on top of these massive marble structures, it is easy to see how you would feel like you are in heaven.

The Hutongs

The Hutongs are small communities of "middle class" Chinese. However, you can tell in these pictures middle class doesn't quite describe it. We were honored to meet Mr. Wong, who opens up his home to tourists where they can visit his traditional Chinese home and see how he lives. We rode to his home via rickshaw and could see the city streets of the oldest part of Beijing. Such a humbling experience.

Porcelain Factory

We toured a porcelain factory where we could see the historical changes in Chinese porcelain over time as well as the process. Check out the fish tea set!!

Pearl Market

We toured the Pearl Market here and saw how they extract fresh water pearls from Oysters. This picture is actually an oyster we picked out and they opened right in front of us! Of course, Vettie and I had to have some lovely jewelry from this place. (Matt has probably already seen the charge come through on the Visa. Sorry babe!! :)