Following the Blue Flag

Saturday was spent following a bobbing flag carried by Sherry, our tour guide. Sixteen families, some of whom did not arrive in Beijing until after ten o'clock on Friday night, started the day at Tiananmen Square adn the Forbidden City, though I must confess that I often had only a most tenuous grasp on where exactly we were and what we were seeing. It was all pretty awesome, though I did not get the sense of grandeur or immensity of scale that I had expected. In fact, at the risk of sounding like someone who is completely Americentric, I think that Washington DC's Capitol and the Mall area is much more impressive. I didn't even find that I had a huge sense of antiquity, even though we were walking through buildings that were 600 years old. It didn't help, of course, that we were kind of rushing through it all and there was not much in English to read.

Jameson did his turn as tour guide, too, when Sherry needed to go check on something. He was an able leader and everyone waited confidently by his flag.

We also visited the summer palace, which has the largest manmade lake in China.

For lunch and dinner we sat with a family from Durango, Colorado. The food was pretty good but not spectacular. The biggest issues for me have probably been the lack of good serving utensils and these little tiny dishes they give you to eat on. Fortunately for me, forks have been standard issue. I think we were all glad to have had the "authentic" dining experience on Friday night with Hamilton.

Our bus driver, James, gave us some real thrills. We sat right in the front of the bus so we had a perfect view of him honking his horn just as a mother pulled her baby's stroller back from the front bumper of the bus as we flew by and of James suddenly veering into a lane where all of the arrows painting on the street were pointing directly at us. Sherry said that they call him James because he drives like the James Bond of Beijing.

We also got to visit a pearl market and a silk factory. At the start of each visit, they gave us tutorials. The owner of the pearl market pried open an oyster to show us about thirty pearls inside! Most of us had thought that there was only one pearl per oyster. He gave Jameson one of the little pearls from that shell. He also used Laura as a model to demonstrate the different colors of pearl. At the end, he put a golden pearl necklace in her hand and said, "For being my model, you may have this necklace . . . for five minutes!" He was quite the showman.

At the silk factory, we got to see them pulling the silk from the cocoons, making it into thread and so on. Then, of course, they had all kinds of things there for us to buy. The most interesting thing to me was that they specialized in silk quilts. I had never heard of such a thing. The inside of the quilt is all silk, very lightweight and durable, and then it is covered in cotton or silk. They say that it is cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Jeannette exercised great discipline and bought only one little pink outfit for MelodyJoy.

By the end of the day, we were all zombies. Again, I can't imagine doing it without having come in one day early. We were just dead tired. Jameson was a real trooper. No complaints at all . . . though he did fall asleep at dinner.

Today, it is off to church, then to a jade factory and the Great Wall, and tonight we will go to an acrobatic show. Tomorrow . . . MelodyJoy!