May 15th, 2010 - Tienanmen Square / The Forbidden City / The Great Wall of China.

Today we went on a long trip to Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China. 

Actually, being a kid, I thought Tienanmen Square was very boring because it was basically a long walk in a big square, and there's nothing interesting to see there.  Well, there were some statues of different people, but I didn't know who they were or what they were doing.

Here I am walking around Tienanmen Square:

Chairman Mao is interred (his body is on display) here.  There was also a giant TV wall in the middle of the square.

After Tienanmen Square, we went to the Forbidden City which was right next to Tienanmen Square.

Here is a picture of one of the guards at the entrance to the Forbidden City:

The Forbidden City is where the Emperor used to live.  He and his family (and servants) were the only ones allowed in the Forbidden City.  It is a really big place.

Here's a picture of one of the inner courtyards of the Forbidden City:

In the afternoon, we went to the Great Wall of China.  I was tired after only walking three miles on the Great Wall.  It is over 4000 miles long and was built by one of the emperors to keep out invaders like the Huns.

Here is a picture of me on the Great Wall:

Here are some more shots from up on the Great Wall:

My folks have put more pictures up on Flickr here:   Scheer Adoption 2010 pics

(Did you know that you cannot see the Great Wall of China from the moon?  There's some interesting information about the Great Wall out on Wikipedia.)

I'm soooooooo excited because tomorrow we fly to Nanchang and we'll get Mari!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

May 14th, 2010 - Temple of Heaven / Hutong / Chinese Golden Acrobats.

We went to the Temple of Heaven on a very cloudy day but it didn't rain.  We rode on a slug bus (see picture above).  And then we got lunch.  Then we went up in a tower, saw a drum show, went on rickshaws, saw a presentation and went back to the hotel.

(Next time you will see the great wall.)

Summer Palace picture -- Dragon Boat.

Here is a picture of a "Dragon Boat" at the summer palace.

PS.  Don't forget to look at my folks' blog at:  http://www.scheeradoption2010.blogspot.com/

Summer Palace picture -- Peacock statue.

Here's a picture of me by a peacock statue at The Summer Palace.

Pictures of the Summer Palace.

Here are some pictures from the Summer Palace – one of the buildings and a lion statue.

Thursday May 13th -- The Summer Palace.

Today we started the day by visiting the Summer Palace.  That is the Emporor's vacation home.  It was very big.  There were a whole bunch of boats in the water, and you could see fish in the water.  The palace grounds cover over 600 acres!  I think the best thing about the Summer Palace was that we got to go on a boat ride in a "Dragon Boat".

 

On the way to the Summer Palace, we drove by The Birds Nest (the Olympic Stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics). 

 

After the Summer Palace, we came back to the hotel and swam.

"Gumby" the Goblin Shark.

This is the Goblin Shark we saw.  I named him "Gumby".

More aquarium pics -- Shark and red fish.

Here's a picture of a cool shark (a nurse shark?) and a picture of a lot of red fish in a small tank.

Wednesday, May 12th - Aquarium, Swimming, Chinese Food.

Today we went to the aquarium.  We saw three stingrays, a Goblin shark, five nurse sharks, five zebra sharks, five white-tipped reef sharks, six black-tipped reef sharks, seven bull sharks, five Morey eels and a whole bunch of different fish.  There was a tunnel you walk through, and there was a conveyor belt in the tunnel.  Fish swam above you, to the right and to the left of you.

Here are some pictures from the aquarium -- a picture of me looking at some Koi fish and turtles, and a picture of a big fat fish.

After the aquarium, we went swimming in the swimming pool for a while, and also went out to dinner with some people in our "travel group" (other US families who are also adopting a child).

Tonight we went out for Chinese food.  You could get flounder, trout, shrimp, lobster, crab -- all live!!  There were some dishes with weird names like "Buddha jumps over the wall", "Double flavor braised donkey Mongolian style", "Jelly fish with vinegar", "Sauteed squid with fungus and chilli" and "Braised bullfrog with chili and pepper".  We got chicken and beef.

Picture of Boeing 747 & Siberia.

Here is a picture of the Boeing 747 that we traveled on from San Francisco to Beijing, and a picture looking down at Siberia.  Once I even saw a highway and some towns.

Coming in to Beijing.

Here's a picture of me working on my "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" book, and a picture of me sleeping in the airplane (with my special banana) as we were coming in to Beijing.  I was so tired that Mom could not wake me up no matter how hard she shook me.

Monday May 10th & Tuesday May 11th, 2010 -- Going to China.

Yesterday and today we traveled on airplanes that were very long flights to get to China (Chicago -> San Francisco -> Beijing).  We saw the golden gate bridge.  On the flight with the 747 we saw icebergs in Alaska and a city down below us in Russia.  We flew over a really cool place in the ocean where there were about a 100 MILLION icebergs.  We also went over the Bering straits.  On the airplane we met someone who would be running in the great wall marathon, actually on the great wall!

It was hard to sleep because my ears kept popping because of the altitude.

After we landed, we met our guide and drove to the hotel. There were big city buses that had mirrors on the ends of poles.  We called them "slug buses" because they looked like slugs.

We ate at the Kentucky Fried Chicken, which was next to the Pizza Hut and the Starbucks.  We are very jet-lagged.

At the hotel you can't drink the water, or even brush your teeth in it.

Tomorrow we are going to the aquarium.  5 days till we adopt Mari!

We're finally up and running!

Ok, I think we have this blogging thing figured out.  It's a little clunky trying to get stuff posted to the blog from China, but we have a way to do it.  Sorry to take so long to get it going, but at least we're finally able to do it.  :-)

Jon (Danny's dad)
5/13/2010