Through new eyes

So I’m having issues posting with pictures, so I will keep it to text for now and add pictures later. So this post was intended for our first day in Beijing.

Yesterday we went to Wal-Mart on our way to the hotel from the Beijing airport. It was quite different, but to be honest I thought it would have been even more different. Some of the interesting things they had were live turtles, “pack-your-own” chicken legs like you would do with fruits, very very expensive sea cucumbers one box was around $1,500. Most of us took advantage of the shopping experience to get a few things to eat and drink to bring back to the hotel. One thing many of us observed is that there aren’t as many people hustling around as you would think; New York City feels more busy.

After checking in at the hotel, a few of us went to a restaurant in the alley behind the hotel, the last one with the red door to be exact, some tourist recommended. We ordered a bunch of dumplings and some other dishes. It wasn’t too bad. Not as different as I remembered real Chinese food.

I travelled to China in 1995, when I was only 12 years old, so it is and will be very interesting to see it again as an adult. I’m so so grateful that my parents took my sisters and I around the world when we were young, but I wish I had been more mature back then. When the Olympics were in Beijing in 2008, I remember watching a documentary about the terracotta army and I had the same thought; I wish I was a little bit older when I saw all the things I was lucky enough to see to understand how special it was. I was probably complaining about being tired and hungry, but what can you say I was 12! We’re actually not going to the terracotta army on this trip, but we will see a few of the things I remember from my first trip to China, like the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City.

Here are a few pictures from yesterday’s short adventure. Today we’re in for a big day.