Ni Hao

This is a temple in the Forbidden City.
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Sorry for the delay in updating the blog.  The internet connection at our hostel in Beijing wasn't the greatest.

Our first day in Beijing was spent touring the Forbidden City.  It housed the emperior and royality for over 500 years.  People rarely ventured outside the city.  It was a maze of building, temples, shrines, residences, and there was an extensive museum with thousands of artifacts.  We then explored Tienemnen Square and an outside food market.  Chris was adventurous enough to try meat on a stick.  It was probably donkey!!! Meghan stuck with squid.

Soldiers marching in the Forbidden City.
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The second day we toured the Ming tombs and the Great Wall.  We had a cool tour group and the wall was impressive.

The last day we headed to the Summer Palace the playground for the empress when it was too hot in the Forbidden City. 75% is Kunming Lake which we rented a motor to tour.  We have walked around the beautiful gardens.

At night we headed for the train to Xian.  An 11 hour over night train.  That was quite an experience!!! We were in hard seats since the sleepers were sold out.  The "seat" was a barely cushioned bench that faced another two seats with a table between it.  Our car was a jungle, the lights were never turned off, people smoking, playing cards, drinking, listening to loud music.  They also sold standing room tickets so people were sleeping in the aisles on newspaper.  It was definitely a good taste of china.  We were also the only nonlocals in this car!

A temple / garden in the Forbidden City.
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Today we had a change of pace in Xian.  We are in a great hostel, in a more relaxed city.  We intended to travel to another town but there is a national holiday and all the trains are booked so we are staying for 4 days and then heading to Hong Kong.

Its Friday evening and we just spent the day visiting the Terracotta Warriers.  It's a army of thousands built to protect Emperior Qin's tomb.  It is considered the 8th wonder of the world.  We have add pictures of the Warriers.

Tommy Lee Jones with a little too much Boss Ice Tea. Check out his eyes!!
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We have spent the last two days in Hong Kong.  It is a beautiful city right on the waterfront.  The first day we took a tram up to Victoria Peak for view of the entire island.  We spent the night watching a light show from Kowloon looking at Hong Kong island.  We also experienced a dragon dance after the light show.  Enjoy our pictures!  We are off to New Zealand tonight.