that touristy thing

Having Andie with us made this trip so much fun. The first time we travelled I didn't want to go to Beijing I didn't want to go anywhere other than Lilys province and have her placed in my arms. This time things were different, I knew our agency was fabulous and that I didn't have to worry about a thing, I knew there would be a baby for me and so on and so on. So when we knew Andie was coming for sure we knew we were heading to Beijing for a few days. We were meant to be in Shanghai for a day but that whole aircraft snafu put the kibosh on that.

Our tour guide was lovely and really really good. When we woke up we had a nice slow breakfast and then met up with Jade to head to Tian 'anamen Square the Forbidden Palace. It was surreal being their. Standing in the Square staring at Mao's face was a moment in my life I will never forget. It was so so so cold and that made our tour quite fast paced as we wanted to get somewhere with some shelter.

OMG, I am in China

99% of China was under construction in 08 as they prepared for the games.

Massive slab of marble all hand carved. The entire thing is one piece

I just really liked all the stuff like this

breathtaking

Mushu. 

Once our tour was complete we went to lunch. I sat and looked at all the food that still had eyeballs and or feet. I am not an adventurous eater. But honestly we were taken to some amazing restaurants and Andie was more than happy to try the local cuisine. Lily impressed me with her willingness to try things.

That afternoon we hailed a cab in a very brazen move and headed out on our own to the Beijing Zoo. Cab rides in China are amazing, not in a wow this is luxurious and safe but in the other way. Holy Sh*t let me take life into my own hands, that kind of way. No speed limits, no seat belts and definitely no kiddie seats. Andie, Lily and I would sit in the back and giggle the entire time. But in all fairness we only had one accident. ~truth.

The zoo was hard to handle as many of the animals had cages, tiny tiny cages. It seems that the only animal given any care is the Giant Panda. Rather than share photos of deplorable conditions I will share some of the hilarious signs we saw there.

I hate it when suddenness happens

Just another Courist Trap

Ok, so I'll crawl over carefully and not leap

who knows but i bet it would translate badly

This makes me laugh, the child is frozen and she wanted her photo taken in front of the frozen lake.

Warming up in our room. As you can see we were up pretty high

We ventured out alone every afternoon and every night. Night was tough as we were freezing cold but we always went somewhere and had dinner and it wasn't the infamous night market