More Forbidden City and Surrounding

Just a cool little statue that I liked.

The entrance to the Forbidden City

Neat architecture.

What can we do??

The Forbidden City

Our first day in Beijing we toured around the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. The Forbidden City is a ridiculously large palace that was built some 600 years ago. It is amazingly well preserved and quite impressive to walk through.

We watched the young men being trained to march perfectly coordinated, while carrying their weapons at the exact right angles, with the same facial expression, in silence. They are drilled relentlessly until it is done in perfect unison.

This is the moat surrounding the Forbidden City nearly 1km long by 800m wide!

Logan had enough looking at the endless rooms and courtyards that all look the same after a few hours. The 30C+ temps also helped put the little guy to sleep.

The Train Ride

This summer we decided to stop in Hong Kong and Beijing for a week on the way home to Canada. We spent a night in downtown Hong Kong (Kowloon) near the popular Nathan street. We spent a relaxing morning in this beautiful park. There were many locals doing there morning tai chi exercises, an animal sanctuary, and playgrounds for the boys. You would never guess you were surrounded by millions of people here. Later that day we boarded an overnight train to Beijing, at least this is what we hoped seeing the ticket agent didn't speak english and my cantonese is quite limited (zero in fact).

We made it to the train where Owen could barely contain his excitement. We were lucky enough to have our own sleeping compartment which was quite comfortable for the 24hrs train ride. Yes, that's right, 1 full day in a small space with 2 very excited little boys. Yet again the boys surprised us with their adaptability and had a great time running up and down the hallway, entering random peoples rooms where they would receive candy, and playing with anyone that was looking for something to do.

We did manage to get some rest on the trip. Logan, not being used to sleeping out of his crib, went to exhaustion and finally passed out with Momma. Owen had no problems and was right at home in his top bunk.

Water Fun Day

Owen's class packed into the tiny pool. No more room for poor Mrs. Lewis.

Water fun day at school was a big success and perfect timing with the scorching Philippines temps this summer.