Day 7...

Well as of yesterday I have been gone for a whole week. It seems much longer. I have been doing so much in such a little time that it is as if I have been here for weeks and weeks. I also am still confuzzled about the dates and time. I am still waking up every morning at about 6. I try and force my self to sleep more but I am always to excited to get going. The last time I wrote I had just finished my big day in Beijing. Yesterday,Sunday, after waking up and having breakfast at the hotel,
(It was the best.I tried some new food that many people in China eat for breakfast.)Uncle Kent and Aunt Ann explained the Forbidden City to me. For those of you who do not know the Forbidden City is where the Emperors of China lived. And when they say the Forbidden CITY they are not joking! It is huge, and literally is a city. I am sure that the Emperors did not even know about most of the rooms in the city.Anyway, no one was allowed into the inner parts of the city unless you where a Unic,Concubine or the Emperor.The Forbidden City has many layers. The outer layers or courts would be the places where the servants and live stock lived. In the inner courts would be the living area of the Emperor and his personal servants,concubines and unics. From here the Emperor ruled his country, never leaving and few ever entering. Some interesting facts about the Forbidden City and the Emperor are,1. All his food needed to be tested before he ate the food. 2. There are 3 bridges(I think) in the Forbidden City going over a river. The Emperor is the only one who can go down the middle bridge. Everyone else has to go on the others. 3. All the doors in the City have thresholds that are raised so that the evil spirits who fly along the ground can't get through. 4. The royal color of the Emperor is yellow.5.On the doors are gold balls. Each row has 9 because 9 is one of the luckiest numbers. Finally,there is a Starbucks in the middle of the Forbidden City. Yes, no joke. In the middle of the City is a building that looks like all the others, but inside it is a Starbucks and a gift shop.Ever since I came to China I have been looking forward to going to the Forbidden City. When we got there I was a little disappointed. Everything there was so new looking, and perfect. The farther back we got the paint was older and faded. I liked that much better because it looked more authentic. Something I really liked was that there were stones on the pavement that looked like the originals. They where old and rough. It was really cool sitting there and imagining that Emperors used to walk on these same stones. We didn't have enough time to go and look at all the artifacts that they had in the museum areas. Sadly while we where there some of the bigger buildings where under construction so I was not able to get pictures of those. Some day I would like to go back. Also while we where at the Forbidden City we saw some tourists from other parts of China, and they where wearing their traditional clothes. They where so beautiful. One woman was wearing a while slip,and over it where strings of white and blue beads all around her slip. It was a skirt of beads. After we left the Forbidden City Jessie, Emma, and Uncle Kent went back to the hotel to swim, and Aunt Ann and I went to the Silk market again to look around. After that we had to drive out to the airport. We wanted to take the train back to Shanghai but Jessie and Emma had school today, and if we had taken the train we would not have gotten back in time for them to get to school. Our plane was supposed to leave at 6:00pm but we didn't get on the plane until 7:30. Then we sat on the plane until 8:30, and didn't get home until 10:00pm, when we where supposed to get back at 8:30! I don't remembered if I told you this or not but in China there are not lines, you budge. We stood up early to get in line and suddenly out of nowhere a huge family comes up and stands right in front of me and starts pushing me back. But when it was time to board I shoved them right back and only let one of them in front of me. I was not about to give them my long earned spot. Most of the people on our plane had never ridden one before. You could tell because they where very loud and forgot to put their seat belts on, and stood up while the plane was landing. A good thing to know if you ever go to China is that when you are on the plane let most of the people out before you. Everyone shoves and pushes like crazy to be the first ones off. That wraps up my trip the Beijing. It was lots of fun and I got tons of photos, I can't wait to come home and show them all to you. I miss you all very much!
xoxoxoxoxox
Kysa