Traveling to Tiayuan

We got up this morning and had breakfast in the hotel.  The breakfast buffet is really good.  Will has been filling two plates each morning, mostly because he wants to try everything.  Today, Josh found a station where the cook was making eggs while you wait.  Needless to say,  Josh was this guys' best customer!

After breakfast, we took our map and decided to try and walk to the Forbidden City and to Tiananmen Squar.  The Forbidden City was the Chinese palace for the emporer from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty.  Tiananmen Square was the site of political protests in 1989 that resulted in the deaths of hundreds or possibly thousands of civilian deaths.  On the way, we were stopped numerous times by younger Chinese people, asking us where we were from, how we liked China, what we had visited so far in China, and if we liked Chinese art.  The question about Chinese art became almost humorous after a few rounds of this.  All of these people just happened to be art students who had their art hanging in galleries just up the street.  They all wanted us to stop into the gallery and admire their work and then buy a piece to take home.  Don't worry, we caught onto the game quickly, at least before we purchased anything!

We finally made it to the Forbidden City.  It was a long walk, but I am glad we went.  There were what seemed like millions of Chinese tourists pouring into the Forbidden City.  We looked at Tiananmen Square from across the street, but decided against trying to cross the six lanes of very fast moving traffic to get there.  Crossing the street is CRAZY, even when it is only a lane or two of traffic.  Remember the game Frogger?  Crossing the street in China bears a striking resemblance to that game!

We got back to the hotel and finished packing.  We then decided to go grab a quick bite to eat at a dumpling restaurant behind the hotel that a friend recommended.  We asked the hotel concierge to show us where it was.  He took us through the back of the hotel, through the service entrance, and into this little restaurant that we would have NEVER found on our own.  I really wasn't even sure if it was a restaurant for a little bit.  We sat in an outdoor courtyard and the entire staff took nearby seats so that they could watch us.  No one spoke a word of English so ordering was interesting, but the food was some of the best we have had.  We ordered a potato, eggplant, and pepper dish that was outstanding....even Will liked it!  When we finished, we went back to the hotel, checked out of our room, and waited in the lobby for our driver to pick us up.

We traveled to the Beijing train station where we would take the high speed, bullet train to Taiyuan.  The train station was a bit crazy and our guide spoke very limited English, but we made it through.  One bag was held up in security.  Our guide kept pointing to our bag and then to her fingernails.  I opened up the bag and pulled out our fingernail clippers thinking that might be the problem.  Our guide and the security officer were amused by that, but clearly that was not the right item.  I then went for the fingernail polish, but again, not it.  They then decided it did not matter so I zipped up the suitcase and they waved us through.  I still don't know what they wanted....

Our guide took us to the train gate, gave us a few directions, and she was on her way.  We sat and waited until they called for us to board the train.  It was very easy and we all enjoyed the train ride very much.  It gave us a chance to see a great deal of the countryside as we traveled.  Within a couple of hours, we were pulling into the station at Taiyuan.  Our guide, Echo, met us out front and we were quickly on our way to the hotel.