Day 5: The real Beijing.

Day five began with a trip to the Beijing Zoo to see the pandas. After all you really can’t come to China and not see its most famous animal.

Do you see the cute pandas in the background?

Next it was off to the Olympic venues to see in person what we had all seen on TV last summer. TV nor pictures do justice to the Olympic venues, they were incredible.

The bird's nest.



Julie & I in front of the water cube.

While at the Olympic venues we passed by a family with a baby. The baby pointed to Chole, Alicia’s daughter, and was quite fascinated to see an American child.

Chole was quite a hit in China, attracting a lot of looks, and a TON of picture requests. Chole is looking forward to being anonymous when she returns to America.

Chole and the baby.

Our local tour guide arranged for us to visit a family from China to see how they live. The bus, or I mean private motor carriage dropped us off in old Beijing, and from there we walked a short distance to the home.

The walk was over dirt streets, with trenches, and other construction going on. It was clear to me based on the hazards I saw, the China is devoid of tort lawyers, which many might consider a blessing

No tort lawyers here!


A trench we crossed.

An outdoor washing sink.

Hang your laundry to dry.

Front door of the local home we visited.

The home was fascinating. One side the home had a bedroom, and living area, there was a court yard in the middle, with the bathroom, and kitchen area on the other side. The home had been in the man’s family for five generations and was 200 years old.

Living area.

Bathroom and wash area.

Kitchen.

Courtyard between the living area and the kitchen and bathroom area.

Patio furniture.

After leaving the home we were treated to a rickshaw ride through old Beijing. Again narrow dirt streets, filled with people, construction and other bicycles.

In the rickshaw.

A market was saw on the rickshaw ride.

Another market.

At the end of the day Julie and I treated ourselves to a foot massage in our hotel room to prepare our weary tired feet for the long plane ride home.

See my piggys getting a nice massage!

Julie's piggys were not left out!