Beijing-Day 1

Our first day in Beijing was very busy. We headed over to Tiananmen Square first. If you look at the pictures you might think that the weather was bad. It actually was very hot and sunny. Problem is you cant see the sun because there is so much pollution. That's not fog in the picture :) They are determined to have the air clean by the Olympics but I am not too sure about that.

We then headed over to the Forbidden City which for those of you who don't know its right next to Tiananmen. I don't think I ever realized how big that place is. It keeps going and going into new sections.

Next we climbed aboard richshaws and took a tour of the Hutongs. Its an older part of the city. My dad made some new friends, even though they could not communicate with each other in the same language. If any of you know my dad he can be pretty friendly to strangers. They even offered him a nice drink, not really sure what it was though. Oh afterwards we did go by where the Olympics are going to be held. The pollution seemed to get worse so I don't have any great pictures of it.

It ended up being a good day, just very exhausting. I don't think I had walked that much in a long time. I was so tired when we got back to the hotel that I fell asleep at 8:30....and if any of you know me that well that is pretty early for me.