China: The first few days.....

Hello everyone!
We’re having a great time so far…. Although feeling a little sleep deprived! We arrived at midnight on Sunday (China Time) and as I went to set the alarm for the next morning I discovered that I had been up for exactly 24 hours. A long day!

On Monday we took the group to the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is the Qing Dynasty emperor’s Summer palace. It has an enormous man made lake and a large man made hill which has a Buddhist temple on top – built by the Emperor Qian Long for his mother’s birthday. We strolled around the lake, along the Long Corridor, caught a boat across to the small island. From there we walked very briskly around the lake and up to the temple at the top of the mountain. A great view was had from the top!

Day two saw the kids having classes in the morning and I thook Brendan to have him fitted for a couple of suits. He should look quite spunky in them! I am also having a couple of silk jackets made. After lunch we took the kids shopping - then to the Temple of heaven (the iconic building with the blue roof that you see in all the shows about Beijing ). This is the place where the Emperor would go once a year to pray for a good harvest. After that partook of Beijing Duck and then took the kids to see a theatre performance at the Laoshe teahouse. It included acrobats, music, comedy and kungfu. Great fun! We finally got home to bed around 10.

Yesterday we went to the great wall at Simatai - a spot I hadn't been to before. Very remote - and VERY steep! We hiked up it for an hour or so - and then slowly and carefully made our way back down. The view was spectacular! Every single one of us slept on the bus on the way home - which says something about how well we're tiring the kids out! They recovered quickly though - and played basket ball before tea and went swimming afterwards. BB and I went for a very brisk 20 min walk to the DVD shop and back. Bought just a few things! :-)

TOday we're off to Tiananmen Square and then the Forbidden city. SHould be a fantastic day. The kids are off on Homestay on the weekend - so the 3 of us adults will get a little much needed grownup space!
Sorry for the brief travelogue nature of this post - in a hurry on a timed connection. I might see if I can post photos another time this week.
Send me a note to say hi!
Hugs to all!
SB XX