What a day! We've been on the go since 7 AM and it is now 8:45 PM local time.
I'll jump back to last night first: Ryan and I met up with Andrew Mak, an Air Products colleague now living in Hong Kong who was in Beijing on business. We took a walk around the neighborhood with our hotel and then had a fabulous dinner, highlights were hot chili oil beef (very hot Sichuan style) and the lily petals side dish. After dinner we tried to stay awake as long as we could so we wouldn't wake up too early but by 9:15 we were both fast asleep. Ryan woke up at 2:30 AM and did some email but I pretty much slept until 6 AM.
Our guide, Grace, met the four families in our group here at 8 AM and we headed to the first stop: Tiannemen Square and the Forbidden City. Tiannemen square was as huge as we expected and then some. Everything in Beijing is big but this place takes the cake. Tiannemen was the first place where we started getting our photos taken by young Chinese people. They were all very friendly and we just acted like rock stars and smiled for the camera. At the end of the square by the entrance to the Forbidden City is the famous giant photo of Chairman Mao. We of course had our photo taken there.
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