More China, At your request

On our first 3 days in China, we were in Beijing. This is before getting the babies. They kept us very busy every day; this is when we went to the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City among other things. Here are some photos; one is of Jimmy in front of the massive portrait of Chairman Mao, another is of some guards that posed for me(a couple of them got all serious and puffed up their chests).One is of our agency guide and Pediatrician,"Dr. Steve" with our friend Peeps and a guard. That photo was taken at the Guard's request. There are a couple of the Forbidden City too. One, not a great photo but it shows the imperial chair at the "Hall of Supreme Harmony" and above it hangs a bronze ball that looks like a giant pearl. Supposedly, the ball will fall on any "Pretender" to the throne and crush them. There are many Halls and many thrones, used for different functions and ceremonies. We were zoomed through the whole place at a frantic pace, following our guide, just barely seeing him sometimes up ahead of us. There is a photo and in it you may see a pink flag way up ahead, that's what I am supposed to be following. Our guide, Tom was very nice and informative but FAST. The 28 families were divided into 2 buses. The other bus group actually did lose some people! They made their way back to a restaurant that we had been to the evening before somehow and made their way to the hotel from there. We managed to stay with our group, but felt as if we didn't absorb half of what we saw. It was all very impressive and the history just wraps around you. We just recently watched the movie "The Last Emperor" just to see all the places we had been. The movie was filmed on location within The Forbidden City and really gives you a sense of what it was like for the Imperial family to live there, and never go outside the walls.