5/1 China International Labor Day Holiday

11 countries 257 cases of the Swine Flu now called H1N1 Virus.
Today was the China International Labor Day Holiday so everyone was out enjoying life with their family. We started with the buffet breakfast that was fabulous. What an eclectic variety: everything from chicken on a stick to salad or steamed breads with spices or dates. We even tried rice congee, which is what Violet eats every day, tastes like rice mash, it’s even better if you add a little honey! We started with visiting the Olympic Village the Pangu 7 Star Hotel, built for the Olympics, that looks like a dragon. Bill Gates spent 100 Million CNY to rent out the penthouse and there is a heliport on the roof. The Water Cube where the swimming was held is as awesome as you’d expect. The design is very through and very well done: walls of running water, clear ceilings looking up into snowflakes and water molecules, windows in the shapes of bubbles, everything in blue’s and white’s, bubble designs on the stadium seating, ceiling grilles with bubble shaped recesses in the practice lanes. It was spectacular and the structure was fascinating. The structure of the Bird’s Nest is just as well done and even the footpath lighting up to the Nest are in the shape of miniatures. From a distance it certainly doesn’t look like the structure is tiny but when you are within the steel structure you realize the size is truly of mammoth proportions. Michael, our guide, quizzed us on Olympic trivia and we failed miserably, you can tell that hosting the Olympics is a HUGE sense of country pride, if he said this was their first time, he said it a half a dozen times. We take it for granted that the US has hosted so frequently.
This made us all thirsty so we went to Dr. Tea’s for a traditional Tea Ceremony where we learned about the different teas, what ailments each help with, and that Old Puerh Tea is priced by the age and a small box only 18 years old cost $100 US. Wow! That is some medicinal tea! Our tea server was Misty or Miss Tea we weren’t sure but she was delightful. The fun part was learning about the “pee-pee boy” which determines if the tea being used is at the correct temperature. When you think the water is hot enough you pour it on him and if he pees you can start to steep the leaves in the water. Too funny!
We went to Hot Pots for lunch. It was fascinating, we each started with a bowl of peanut sauce and they brought out a plethora of raw dishes: lamb, shrimp or fish balls, cabbage, rice noodles, pasta noodles, dandelion leaves and, cut up roots. You put the food in the boiling water and waited until it was cooked, you then added it to the peanut sauce and if you wanted it spicy you added the chili and garlic oil (which of course we did!). It was so much fun and we ate too much. The pickled garlic and sesame bun that came with the meal topped out the fabulous meal.









There were six of us today: Michael our guide, Mr. Hua our driver, Nancy and Sandy and us. Nancy and Sandy are two grandmas of the other couple we will meet up with in Guangzhou, Deb and Steve. They visited Beijing when they picked up Sophia their first adopted daughter a couple years ago so the three of them are flying direct into Guangzhou. Michael had to spend the afternoon at the airport picking up the three other couples from AAI so Nancy and Sandy went shopping while we took a cab to the Summer Palace. What a wonderful afternoon, we guessed that half of Beijing went as well to celebrate the Labor Holiday but there were plenty of quiet places if you climbed up to the Palaces on the hill. It gave a breathtaking view of Kunming Lake which occupies three-quarters of the 1.5x2 mile park. We climbed to the top of Longevity Hill to see the Hall of Dispelling Clouds, Tower of Buddhist Incense, the Thousand-Hand Guanyin Buddha, and a spectacular view of the park and Beijing. We walked down to see the Marble Boat and then all the way around the lake to the south east end to see the South Lake Island and the 17 arch Bridge. We stayed until it closed and there is no doubt why it is a favorite for everyone, especially to celebrate the China International Labor Day Holiday.