More photos

Rickshaw ride

Squatty potty

It is Saturday morning and thankfully a little better night of sleep. I think we both fell asleep at 7:00. We had a busy day at the Forbidden City and Hutong tour. The Forbidden City is the center of Beijing. It has a history of over 600 years and took about 14 years to build. The government still occupies the western part of the city. Tiananmen square is at the south end and Tiananmen means Heavenly peace gate. It was very cold and as soon as we stepped off the bus the vendors just swarmed us. They are very persistent. Brian did purchase some gloves since it was so cold. There were many military personnel. At the request of Hannah's kindergarten class, Brian was able to get a photo of the squatty potty at the Forbidden City. Unfortunately we have had to use them a couple times.

Then we went to the Hutong area which is an area with very narrow streets. The homes all have a central courtyard. We toured the area in a rickshaw. It was very interesting and we were able to go into one of the families homes. There were about 11 families that lived in this one home. He was very nice and he shared photos of his family when he was very young.

We all met for dinner at the hotel last night and everyone was very tired. Today we are going shopping and then to an acrobat show in the late afternoon. Tomorrow will be an early morning as our flight leaves at 7:30 a.m. to Jinan where we will meet Ciarra in the afternoon. We will get more details at our meeting this afternoon. I am sure I will not sleep much tonight. Hope everyone is doing well back home and we appreciate all the comments. Boys and Hannah we miss you and hope you are being good!