“I like traveling so far” “Today was amazing” – Rawlings
“Dumplings are my new favorite food” – Shepherd
“Rawlings is the youngest visitor to tour the Forbidden palace for as long as we have today, since I’ve been doing this” – Fred, the best tour guide ever 😉

We had a great first day in Beijing! Started the morning with a diverse breakfast spreas at the hotel– steamed buns, noodle bar and plenty of pastry options that the boys enjoyed. We walked around the neighborhood near the Park Plaza where the Jing Bao shopping area is located over several blocks.

Shepherd found where the Dominos pizza delivery bikes are stored:

We met our guide, Fred, at 9am and drove to Tiananmen Square.  As much as we were taking in the setting, the boys were very popular with everyone else visiting — Fred said it’s their light hair…?

We walked through Mao’s massive mausoleum where he is very eerily well preserved. Rawlings remarked that he looked very short (Fred shared that he actually wasn’t). The crowds have been very light given the time of year, but we’ve been lucky weather wise– entirely pleasant to walk outside for the entire morning.

We moved on to the Forbidden Palace and spent well over two hours exploring the gardens, temples and treasures. The boys loved the massive copper pots intended to capture rain water in case of fire.

We had lunch at a very yummy dumpling house known for its soup dumplings

And then and afternoon of kid friendly adventures

Hackey sack

Water calligraphy

Meeting the ultimate cricket fighter followed by a cooking class that took place in a home in a hutong.

And then the boys hit the brick wall of tired!

We had an amazing first day and resting early for the visit to the Great Wall tomorrow!