Stephen Metcalfe Speaks

Today is Sunday and we had to wake up at 4:30AM!! Usually that would be insane but since we're still messed up due to the time change, it wasn't too bad. Mr. Lilly and I were on time, however Mrs. Hartley and Mrs. Michael were a little late but caught up. When they say we're leaving at 4:40AM, they really MEAN IT!! We headed for a little run to Tie'amen Square to watch the raising of the Chinese National Flag. This is very similar to Americans saying the pledge of allegiance. It was pretty neat but hard to see because the Square was so incredibly huge!! Afterwards we went for a little run and came back to the Hotel for breakfast and a much needed shower. Breakfast was a little different. They called it an American breakfast but a lot of the food was cooked in a Chinese style. After breakfast, we got on our tour bus and rode to the Forbidden City. The ride lasted all of 20 seconds! From the outside, the Forbidden City doesn't look very big but as we went along, we realized this was a massive place that was bigger than Disney Land!!!! We saw some very interesting things inside the Forbidden City like where the political activities took place, ancient jewelry like jade stones and crowns, the living quarters of the emperor, and where they held the ritual banquets using stone bells and chimes. We also saw where the emperor would watch the opera and it was a 3-story theatre which had 5 trapdoors on the first floor.

Here's a trivia question for you!! One of the bells weighed 4,790 grams. How much is this in pounds? The first person to blog back the correct answer will get a set of decorative chop sticks!

After the Forbidden City, we were while trying to get to our tour bus, vendors on the street were very aggressive in trying to sell us little items. They were so aggressive that we felt very uncomfortable and HAD to become very rude to a number of these Chinese people. Needless to say, we were relieved and glad, we were on the tour bus! Once on the bus, we went out to a Chinese Restaurant, which was really good. We were served plenty of different types of chicken along with some rice, and other vegetables which Mr. Lilly refused to eat!! The vegetables that is!

When we got back to the hotel, we started talking about the next few things that were on the agenda and the next thing you know, were all passed out from exhaustion.

In the early evening, we were given tickets to a Flying Acrobatics Show. This was awesome!! People from a small village in Southwest China, in the Sichuan Province, performed some high flying acts, such as jumping through hoops, spinning plates, extreme flexibility moves, and using see-saws to boost their partners high in the air doing all sorts of different flips.

After the show, we dodged cyclists and many other vehicles in an insane amount of traffic to get back to our hotel. Thank goodness we had a no-nonsense kind of driver! It's been another adventurous day with plenty of pictures taken and a crazy amount of Chinese history learned. Who knows whats in store for tomorrow? All I know is, we're out like a light!

Happy Mother's Day!!
Mr. Metcalfe