TianAnMen and Zhongshan Park

Hey again!

So we had an interesting time being tourists this week. I want to tell you about our adventures going down to the TianAnMen Square area.

The whitest Chinese kid you will ever see! :)

The sea of people trying to get to get near TianAnMen.
The road was blocked off to the right of this pic.

So Mom and Dad were TRYING to be cool (They are getting old, so it’s hard work for them sometimes) and thought it would be a good idea to head down to one of the biggest tourist attractions in Beijing on Monday, October 1. Monday, October 1 = National Day here in China. (Think 4^th of July minus cooking out and parades, plus millions of people)  Let’s just call this day a fail. In a nutshell: rode the subway for about an hour and a half (Mommy says it’s Daddy’s fault that we didn’t get off at the correct station), walked 20 mins- just far enough to get to a barricaded street about 2 blocks away from TianAnMen Square, and shuffled (and when I say shuffled I mean, walked like penguins for another 20 mins) back  to the subway to ride about another hour and a half home. Our family was worn out.

BUT did that stop us from trying again the next day??? No way! After lunch that following afternoon we got back on the subway, got off at the right station and were there in about an hour. YAY! I was sooooo excited. I kept telling everyone around me, “Going to Tiananmen Square” I don’t really think I even knew what that meant, but it sure was fun to say!

There were still so many people in this area, but it was fun to feel like a tourist with everyone else. We walked around in front of the Forbidden City, first. I got to see Mao’s picture on the wall for the first time. He is not that nice to look at. We will just leave it at that. If you can’t say something nice, you shouldn’t say anything at all, right?

Then we took an underground walkway to get across the street to Tiananmen. There were quite a lot of people there, but I did get to run around in there a little bit. It was all decorated for the holiday with flowers and TV boards. There was a big picture of a man who I think is going to be the new president. He’s got a sweet mustache.

This isn't even bad. Sometimes there are 20 people
taking pics at a time!

I think now would be a good time to mention that I am famous. Yup, it’s like I have paparazzi following me whenever I leave our area of town. During this national holiday people seem to think that I am even more special and cute. Anytime that Mom has me stand in a certain place for a picture everyone around wants to snap a shot too. People also were constantly asking me to take a picture with them. Sometimes I would allow them to, but sometimes I would run away. Mom and Dad pretty much let me decide if I want to take pics with people I don’t know. Weston sometimes gets this treatment too, but since he is usually being held by Mom or Dad it’s not as often. Random people do ask to hold him though, but my parents ALWAYS say NO to that. I also think that’s a little weird… We especially get our pictures taken by Chinese people when Wes and I are in a picture together. Mom and Dad had us sit in a couple different places together and when they were finished they would turn around and there would be up to TWENTY people standing behind them taking pictures too! The game we made up was to take pictures of them like they were doing to Weston and me. It was pretty funny.

Weston and I outside one of the buildings

Anyway, next we went to Zhongshan Park. It is just to the west of the Forbidden City. It was originally an imperial pleasure garden. It was awesome! There were so many flowers and old Cypress trees. It also had some Chinese style buildings and gates and a section of all bamboo. We spent a couple hours running around in there. The weather was beautiful and it wasn’t TOO crowded. We are going to go back there another day because they also have an indoor playground area, but it closed for the day 5 minutes before we got there! I was really sad, but I was a big boy when my parents explained what was going on.

Family at ZhongShan Park

After we left the park we got to go to McDonalds on the way home. I was super excited to have chicken nuggets! We even got to get some ice cream because Daddy and I were good boys!