China Trip - December 20, 2004
Another day of touring in the freezing Beijing air, so we dressed Elisa warmly in a sweater from Zia Linda. Note the lady-like crossed legs.
Yulin took this picture of us at breakfast at the hotel. My nice black sweater looked a little different by the end of the day with many milk stains and half-eaten cheerios.
Today was Elisa's physical exam for Canadian Immigration. She passed the test and got an "A" for good behavior during the exam.
The clinic for the medical exams was located in a shopping mall that included a Starbucks, so Vicki and I got a Grande Latte fix and we bought an enormous Starbucks Beijing mug to celebrate.
After the medical exams, we piled on the bus and went to Silk Alley. This is a famous narrow street where the Communist Chinese government first allowed entrepreneurial vendors to sell silk and other goods and keep the profits. The experiment in capitalism was deemed a success and later the Chinese Prime Minister declared "it is glorious to be rich" and began the process of transitioning the Chinese economy to a market-based system. This was the last week that the vendors were going to be selling on this street. They are being forced to leave and sell in a new indoor shopping center where they will have more regulations and taxes (but also more heat!). The vendors on this street are famous for being aggressive, grabbing your arm and pulling all kinds of stunts to get your money. But a number of us who had also been to Jamaica felt that the naturally polite Chinese were not nearly as aggressive as the Jamaicans. Vicki ended up buying a "cashmere" scarf for about $15 after an initial offer by the vendor of three times that much. After thinking about it back on the bus, we figured we probably still payed too much!
After the Silk Alley spree, we went back to the hotel and had a very nice lunch by room service, and spent the rest of the afternoon playing with Elisa on the floor of the hotel room. Then we grabbed a cap and went on our own to Tiananmen Square. It was dusk, and very clear, and very cold. But we put Elisa in the snow suit, with the Russian Princess hat and a pink scarf so that only her eyes where exposed through a little slip. And we fastened her into the new stroller and she was a happy camper as long as we kept moving and her little face didn't get turned inside the hat. The square was beautiful and impressive.
This is the gate to the city, where the old wall used to be.
This is the memorial building that includes Mao's tomb, with sentries posted on all sides.
This is the famous obelisk in the center of the square. We took this picture with the intention of sending it to the Maclaren stroller company for their collection of pictures showing their strollers with famous people or in exotic places. I think we should qualify on both counts!
After returning back to the hotel, we spent a quiet evening playing with Elisa. She is more and more captivating every day, and is making great progress. She is eating more hard foods (including endless Cheerios, scrambled eggs, cheese cake, grapes, watermelon, french fries and arrow root cookies. She makes less of a fuss at nap time, although getting her to sleep at night still requires at least a half hour of pacing with her in our tired arms. And she is heavily into learning to master walking. Tonight she broke her record and got up to 21 steps, including a turn.