duck brain...

Hello everyone! Today's update includes more food and more sightseeing notes. Yesterday afternoon we did some shopping at the Silk Market and the Pearl Market. One of the best finds was a tiger hat for Meili. It's SO cute! "In Chinese folklore, babies wear this hat on their first birthday in order to catch, between the tiger's ears, all the heavenly goodness falling from the sky." We're a few months late for Meili's birthday but we got it anyway!

After the Pearl Market we went to what's considered one of Beijing's best roast duck restaurants. The duck was DELICIOUS! Our China friends will remember making the pancakes with the duck, sweet sauce, and green onions. Our server last night also showed up two other ways of eating duck. It was so good! Most interesting part... at the end of the meal they brought the duck's cooked head out to the table. Apparently it's one of the best parts. Henry didn't want to try it so I went for it. (He ate duck feet this past summer and I didn't so it was my turn to try something new.) It was... interesting. Not slimy like I thought it would be, but not my favorite Chinese food item. It is good to try new things!

Today we walked to Jing Shan Park. It's located just behind the Forbidden City. It's way up on a hill - built with the dirt taken out when the moat around the Forbidden City was dug. From the park we had a bird's eye view of the Forbidden City and Beijing in general. We could also see the mountains off in the distance. It's sunny and somewhat clear today and the view was just stunning. We walked to Tian'anmen Square next, hoping to go into Mao Xedong's mausoleum. His body is on display at certain times but it was already closed for the day. We'll probably go back tomorrow morning.

The other Bethany families arrived last night. This is their free day. I wonder what time they all woke up this morning. Tomorrow we start our group sightseeing and events by going to a Chinese acrobat show.

I guess that's it for now. We're having a WONDERFUL time! We'll post again when we can. Internet access is somewhat inconsistent - we've not been able to post pictures on here and Henry can't get into his email at all. Apparently an earthquake near Taiwan last month made some internet sites really difficult to get into.