China Home Land Tour July 2011: Beijing

After breakfast, we planned on meeting Mr. Wang, the father of a Chinese friend of a friend of mine. Mr. Wang’s daughter Jia was a student at UMass-Amherst and was “adopted” by my friend Nancy while Jia lived near Boston (she now lives near Philadelphia). Mr. Wang and his wife have come to the Boston area several times to see his daughter and also visited Nancy. Mr. Wang, who speaks English as a result of living in London for many years as the Air Force attaché to the Chinese embassy, agreed to meet us at the hotel.

All seven of us and Mr. Wang decided to walk to a park near Tianamen Square. The girls were able to play in the park and to learn a little history about the area. Then Mr. Wang very kindly hosted us at a dumpling lunch at a specialty Dumpling restaurant near our hotel. He must have ordered 10 dishes of dumplings – pork, chicken, fish, vegetable, duck, etc. We quickly became stuffed! Luckily, the restaurant prepared a take-home package so that Mr. Wang could bring the rest of the dinner home. It was wonderful to get Mr. Wang's viewpoint on the many questions we had. He was very much the gentleman, and I think he got a kick out of the girls playing "Marco Polo" (a game of blindman's tag normally played in the pool) in the park! Mr. Wang is retired now, and he told us he is very happy, and that he is able to fill his leisure time with many activities. He was in great physical shape, as he exercises daily.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel, said our thanks and goodbye to Mr. Wang. We then headed by taxi to Ling Ling pearls. I bought earrings and bracelets for the girls. Then back to the hotel for a swim, on to McDonald’s for a quick dinner, and then to see a Chinese acrobat show. The show was beautiful, and amazing, and we all enjoyed it immensely! Then home to bed, as the girls were exhausted (the adults were too!)