Last Day in Beijing

During our last breakfast in Beijing, we said goodbye to Kyra's favorite breakfast item - pork-filled buns.

Our visit to the Summer Palace was a windy and cold one, so it was fairly quick.

I do love the Summer Palace, because when the Emperor and Empress were here, the Empress was in charge! These are statues of a dragon and a phoenix. If you look closely at the dragon's foot, you'll see there is no ball underneath it. That means the Emperor has no power here. We should put these in front of every home (wink wink).

The beauty of the architecture here never ceases to amaze me.

The huge manmade lake at the Summer Palace.

Next we went to the Beijing Hutong. Hutong means small street or alleys and is used to describe old Beijing neighborhoods. Most of the last of these neighborhoods were torn down to make room for the Olympic stadiums. The last remaining Hutong has been designated as a historical area. We toured it in a rickshaw.

We then went to eat lunch at a local family's home in the Hutong. Birds in cages hung above their door.

This is their dining room, where the owner you see -- I cannot spell her name -- cooked us a delicious meal. We ate in her dining room, the kitchen was the same size as this.

The kids could not get enough of the crackers that looked like our bugles. They were delicious!

The father and their oldest son, who is shown in the picture here, are Kung Fu Masters. The son shoots pictures with Jackie Chan! 

As we were eating, I heard a chirping. I had heard of Chinese keeping a grasshopper or cricket in their home for good luck, and sure enough, they kept a grasshopper in a cage in their kitchen. The visit ended all too quickly for me.

Next we were off on the Bullet Train for a four hour ride to Xian. Nothing like seeing the Chinese countryside at 306 km per hour, which translates to 190 mph. I was surprised that I could see the view in the distance. Objects right next to the train passed by in a complete blur.

Kyra and Liam are such good travelers. The train station was tough -- it was packed with very long lines that we stood in for quite a while. Even though we are all still struggling with jetlag, awake at all hours of the night or starting our day at 4:30 in the morning because we can't sleep any more, they never complain and they are never grumpy. We are blessed with traveling kids!