Chinese New Year in China!

I almost forgot.  Did Austin's team win the gold medal at the rugby tournament in Manila??  They were in the championship game.  At the end of the game, the score was tied.  At the end of the first overtime period, the game was still tied.  At almost the end of the second overtime period, Manila scores and wins the gold medal.  But Austin's team gave it their all and we are very proud of them!

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So, my whole family was sitting around the kitchen table, working.  I was working on a spring break trip to China.  I emailed my good friend, Julie, who lives in Beijing, and asked if her family would be in town for spring break.  Turns out their spring break is the same time as ours and they would not be home.  But, why don't we come for Chinese New Year, less than three weeks away?  My kids get a four day weekend for CNY. I looked at Joe and asked if he wanted to go to China for CNY and he said, why not?  So two hours later, we had plane tickets to Beijing!

Let's just say I did not think this through.  A couple of days later, Joe told me we all needed visas to go to China.  Oh, yeah.  Hence the whole Operation- Get Austin to Manila chronicled in my last blog post.  Then I checked the weather.  Two weeks before our trip, the high in Beijing was 3!!!  Not a typo.  3 degrees Fahrenheit.  Living in KL, I tend to forget that other Asian countries have cold winters.  I had to borrow lots of winter clothes.  And finally, air pollution problems in Beijing did not even cross my mind till the day before we left.

Let me explain Chinese New Year to those not familiar with the significance of it.  It is like Thanksgiving and Christmas combined, as far as wanting to be with family and travel.  They call it the "largest annual human migration in the world" as millions of people travel in China.  This is an actual picture of the Beijing airport around this time of year.  I did google 'traveling to Beijing on CNY' and found that the city itself can be quite uncrowded, so that is when I decided to go ahead and buy tickets.  But I still worried about the crowds at the airports.

We landed very early Friday morning after a 6-hour direct flight from KL.  I was pleased to see light crowds at both airports.

While the Turners were at work and school, we went to Tienanmen Square.  It was cooooooooold.  Fortunately, it was 30 and not 3, but still cold.

Tienanmen Square is across a very busy road from Forbidden City.  You walk in the tunnel to get there.

This was the coldest day.  I was wearing two pairs of socks, boots, a sweater, down vest, coat, gloves, headband, and neck thingie.  Savannah didn't believe me when I told her it would be very cold.  She was freezing the whole time.  But take a look at that sky!!

The Forbidden City is comprised of several sets of walls.  We went through lots of amazing red doors.

This picture is really of the blue sky, not us.

The Forbidden City is the largest ancient palatial structure in the world.  It housed 24 Chinese  emperors, from 1420 to 1912.  You could easily spend hours and hours here.  There is so much to see.

Just in case you find my delight in the blue sky obsessive, this is what it can look like in Beijing!!  I will be doing a separate blog post on air quality in Beijing.  A subject I can relate to better now that I live in KL!

Warming Savannah up as we wait for our car

After our sight-seeing, we ate a late lunch at Subway.  The sandwiches were about the same, but the chips were different.  Cucumber and Spicy Hot Pot flavors.  Hint:  Do not buy cucumber chips.

  

We are now at our friends' house.  Look what they have in their garage.  Their own tuk tuk!  I had ridden in a tuk tuk in Thailand, but I had no idea people owned them for personal use!  Mark is modeling the attached quilted mitts and lap blanket.  I was anxious to take it for a spin, but the key was, um, no where to be found.  But next visit for sure!

New Year decorations at the local mall

Let's just say the weather was cold enough to maintain the outdoor ice couch.

Ahhhhh.  A roaring fire and a cup of hot chocolate was the perfect way to end the day.  

The next day we headed off to the 'Dirt' market.  You heard me right.  Think of it as a very large flea market one can buy giant temple guard dogs

or a set of antique doors.  I love antique doors.  If I didn't already own two sets, I would have been sorely tempted to buy these!

I just had to throw in this picture of the parking lot!  It has three levels, but the cars get to the upper levels by a sort of car elevator.  Since the parking lot was almost empty, we didn't get to see it in action.

My big purchase at the dirt market?  An old moon cake mold.

These are moon cakes.  They are very popular during the Mid-Autumn Festival.  And no, I have no plans to actually make moon cakes.

A lot of the stalls and lots were empty, with people starting to celebrate the new year early.  But there was still so much to see!

After the Dirt market, we went to the Pearl market.  You heard me right, pearls!  Well, this place had several floors of products.  The very top floor had expensive jewelry.  Lots of pretties!  The floor beneath that was less expensive pearls and lots of other jewelry.  Other floors included clothing, purses, luggage.  The main floor was primarily electronics.  Here are Julie and I, testing out my new selfie stick.  We all had a good day of shopping.

Why am I showing you a picture of Mark and Julie's refrigerator??  Well, do you see the little white squares?  Those are Mandarin symbols!  Mark, Julie, and Hannah all speak Mandarin.  This is their second time in Beijing.  Mark actually went to language school in the US to learn Mandarin before his first assignment in Beijing with the State Department.  It is so impressive to hear this family speak Mandarin as we are out and about.

On New Year's Day, we went into Beijing, to a festival.  But first, we stopped for a Chinese lunch.  Real Peking Duck!  Our whole meal was outstanding.

There were lots of shops and food booths in this area.  Joe is looking forward to his egg tart, which is very similar to custard pie.

Savannah and I shared this strawberry skewer.  The strawberries are covered in a thin layer of caramelized sugar.  It was delicious!

It is now the Year of the Monkey.  There were monkeys everywhere!

And while we were walking around this market area, we just happened on this photo booth.  Well, I can't pass up a costume photo booth!!  I even roped the girls into posing with us!  :)

This was our 'traffic' as we headed back to Mark and Julie's house.  They were shocked at both the lack of traffic and the lack of smog.  Chinese New Year is a great time to visit Beijing!

Unless you want to eat.  When we got back to the neighborhood, every single restaurant was closed.

On our last morning, we spent some time in the flower market.  I have no idea what this is called, but it was beautiful!

We spent a beautiful 4 days in Beijing!  We had so much fun hanging out with the Turners.  I would recommend visiting Beijing at this time, as long as you realize that not everything is open.  But there is still so much to see and do!  Since this was the second CNY we have spent with the Turners, we are already talking plans about next year.  I propose they come to KL!  I won't have to borrow any winter clothes and we can lay out by the pool.  :)

Finally, Happy Valentine's Day.  Here are my most special valentines!