Our first night in Beijing we were surprised at how hard the beds were. They kind of feel like an ironing board. We started our site-seeing in Beijing at Tiananmen Square.

It was a hot day for a long walk through the Forbidden City.

A top-notch bathroom in the Forbidden City.

We took a walk through the Hutongs (narrow streets/alleys/homes). They have communal bathrooms. This photo is of the neighborhood women’s restroom:

Temple of Heaven was interesting to see.

Lunch had some unique items:

HongQiao Pearl Market shopping area was fun for Lauren to bargain. We bought “sunbrellas” to use more for shade than protection from rain.

We had dinner at a famous Peking Duck restaurant.

Fortunately, it cooled down a little (even rained overnight) for the next day. It was overcast and only 85 degrees instead of 95 degrees like the day before. We rode a chairlift up to the Great Wall of China at Mutianyu. After hiking for a few hours, we took the toboggan (alpine slide) down.

A funny thing at the base was a man who would carry people up to the chairlift in his rickshaw. He played a pop song the all of the high school students knew and sang along.

That evening we had fun at a Peking Acrobat show. Photography is not permitted (but someone in our group took these two pictures).

On our last day in Beijing we went to Beijing Normal University. we spent about 3 hours interacting with HanBan teachers headed to the US to teach Chinese. They were very concerned about rowdy US students.

After lunch we flew to Chengdu, in Sichuan Province.