Whew! If I didn't feel like a tourist before.. I certainly do now. The past few days have been a whirlwind of temples, walls and nasty chicken. Well not too much nasty chicken but enough to make me want to turn vegetarian. They just don't like to take the grizzle off.. gross!

Anyway.. back to what really matters. We had a taste of how the emperors lived during the Ming Dynasty as we toured the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. Sights to be seen included the golden roofs, endless pagodas and temples filled with gold relics and buddha statutues. The Summer Palace was about two hours outside Beijing and was surrounded by a beautiful lake and acres of weeping willows. We met two guys there who had rented a car and were able to take us back to Beijing in about thirty minutes versus the hour and half it usually takes by bus. One of the guys teaches creative thinking to preschoolers in Shanghai. It is interesting when Western teachers come as they introude the ideas of make believe and "kitchen"　and all the fun stuff we got to do in preschool that Chinese children never do. Overall the two sites were nice but by the end you really get tired of looking inside temple after temple. I took lots of pictures though and am carefully weeding though so you can truly apprecite the beauty of what once was... as they truly are amazing and worth the visit.

The beauty of what once was is an interesting concept for Beijing. Everywhere you look they are tearing down buildings and putting up high rise apartments and new complexes in preparation for the Olympics. The construction is truly in every facet of the city including at the temples as they scrub down the roofs to make it shiny and new. One place they have closed down that I find very interesting is the History Museum. We met someone who works at the Revolutionary Musuem and even she does not know why. Courtney and I think they are rewriting the history so that when all the people arrive for the Olympics they do not take offense. A bad theory maybe but its plausible.

China hasn't really seemed like a communist country for the most part but every now and then they like to remind you. We were sitting on a park bench the other day, eating this wonderful pancake like thing made off egg, onions and spices when I decided to slip off my flip flops and tuck my legs under me. Now there are guards EVERYWHERE, including the parks. So the guard came right up to me and motioned to me to put my shoes on and take my feef off the bench. It was almost as unnatural as the the parks with the most beautiful flowers and grass that you are not allowed to sit on. Its like taunting you as you go by.. haha.. I am so nice and pretty.. but you can't enjoy me. Suppose that is how they do it around here.

Anywhoo.. today we went to the Great Wall of China!! It was amazing to be there and see the enormity of it as you gaze down from the top of endless twists and turns. Everywhere you look there is another piece of the all veering off in all directions. We took the cable car to the top.. whimps.. but hey, its the same one Clinton took. We got to the top and there was some sort of company party going on.. Western Food! but they shooed us on and we went on a hike.. wow.. stunning views.. and even more stunning knowing that people made it by hand. Truly a work of genius. After a few hours we couldn't really figure out how to get off the wall until we saw some ski lifts and a tobbagin course! My first instinct was that it was too unsafe and scary but Courtney was going so I couldn't chicken out. Turns out it was amazing. Picture going down the whole mountainside in a little sled with a break on an alpine slide.. whoo I was freaked but it was only about five mintues long.. such a baby! I want to go back now since know the course.. oh well.. next time.

We are leaving tomorrow for Xiamen, staying there a day or so and then catching a flight to Thailand. It is hard to believe that the first part of our trip is over but there is so much more to come. Knowing that we are leaving China in a few days leaves me with a mixture of feelings. It is an amazing country with a vast amount of beauty and culture, but it is also a place I don't think I would ever feel at home. Most days I feel like an animal in a zoo where people go out of their way to walk by and stare at us. We have been asked to be in pictures with probably as many people as one of the Baldwin brothers would get us a trip out here.. if not more. The people are not as warm as many other cultures I have exprienced but I am an outsider and thus cannot tell if it is due to that. The sense of everyone being out for themselves is evident in the way they drive, never pausing to let even a child pass as they are always in a hurry. I won't generalize that the whole culture is cold as there have been many people how have showed extreme kindness in guiding us along our way. The mothers and babies are adorable and even the children on the streets can't help but steal your heart. Giving away food here is amazing as you see the pure joy it brings to the children. The food here is not something I would ever crave at 1 in the morning though i have to say i have not really gone out on a limb to try some of the crazier conncotions. Overall I am glad I have been able to witness what is left of the older China. As we all know things here are changing rapidly and the effects of Westernazation are reaching deeper and deeper .THe people have only recently emerged from a long slumber under the leadership of Mao and it is important to watch their emergence into this global world. I would like to come back when I am older to see how small this world really has become.