Day 1. The circus

The morning of day 1 began well. We had toast, coffee and fruit for breakfast while Bob gave us directions on how to get to our places of interest.  The Forbidden City is a tourist must-do and I really wanted to check out Summer Palace. Now, I am an planner by nature, but I try to be more relaxed and fly by my seat kind of girl, if the plan doesn’t work out.  When traveling, I like to smash in doing as much as possible so I need to have a good idea about what there is to do.  I wasn’t sure how my ideas on what to do would mesh with the the group of strangers, but my overly independent personality makes me completely okay with going my own way if no one wanted to do what I wanted to do.   But it worked out well because Jana & I wanted to do the same things while everybody else didn’t really have much in mind for the itinerary.

Our journey to the Summer Palace took us on the subway where we began to realize the uniqueness of our group, especially to Chinese eyes.  Jana and I are white females with blonde and brown hair and blue eyes- not many blue eyes in China. Then we have the 2 St. Louis guys:  a younger  white guy experiencing his first trip out of the states-  and a black guy with awesome dreads-also his first time out of the country- and a mystery to the Chinese with his cool hair. Then there is the New York City couple who was fearful of flights, food, water, germs etc.  Once we met them I became worried about their health, turns they are very over-weight which is even more apparent in an Asian environment where the average person is probably 80-100 lbs.

Now that you have a better picture in your head, imagine the trip on the subway.  I'm sure we would have been a site in any foreign land, but China  has only been open up to foreigners over the past couple of decades.  Aside from business men and the 2008 Olympics, seeing foreigners isn't as common as one may think.  And seeing a  group like ours – I am pretty sure was a big rarity. We had eyes on us at every passing, as we walked through crowds people would whisper, point, and snap photos as soon as we passed.   It felt like we were part of the circus.  Chinese people have a long history of being xenophobic.  Although some didn't seem scared as they were curious, some just down right obvious in pointing and laughing.  I couldn't help but laugh myself....WTF did I get myself into?  I am way more of a blender and not feel comfortable sticking out.  Another one of the situations that is just  too funny to take seriously.

Now back to the summer palace... The destination itself turned out to be very beautiful. And the scenery,  aww.  I can only imagine what it would be like in the summer, as it was now 36 degrees...freaking cold.  We took a dragon boat ride on a slightly frozen lake where the ice cracks as we floated by.  Then we hiked a zillion steps to a beautiful Buddha incense mansion overlooking the whole property.  It was very pretty and had immaculate details in the architecture. The place was quite crowded with Chinese tourists and only occasionally we would pass a western traveler.  Our group was so unique and very non-incognito.  So many stares, looks and giggles.  I had a couple of Asian ladies ask to take a picture with me----it reminded me of my time in Thailand....where they really like foreigners and would commonly want to get a picture with one, as opposed to being scared or appalled by them. 

After several hours, we were pooped and hungry so we headed to Tiananmen Square, another area with lots of Chinese history. The people gathered here to protest the government and unsuccessfully fight for democracy back in 1989, the government ended up turning on the people and killings hundreds.  Now the amount of surveillance and armed guards is overwhelming.

We strolled the grounds for a bit and finally came across a restaurant.  Omg amazing food!  I had the dumplings that I had been looking forward and Jana ordered some mushroom soup that was delicious.  With full bellies and sore feet we decided to call it a day and head back for a break...my jet lag had really kicked in.  We had all discussed going to dinner, but when time came around I just felt like quitting the circus!!!!  I went to bed for the night, be had to be up by 545 am anyway for our journey to the wall.