This is long overdue but I have so much to give thanks for. And to show the photos too…
We took a one week holiday in Beijing in June. The weather was dry and the sun blazing. I was so thankful that we brought moisturizer and the suntan lotion. We went to the must-sees – The Great Wall, The Forbidden City, Tian An Men, Wang Fu Jing, the Summer Palace, saw the Olympic icons, the National Theatre, visited the biggest bookstore in Beijing – Xidan Bookstore, the Natural History Museum and the Geological Museum and ate the famous roast duck. Beijing is HUMONGOUS. Most of the time, we took the subway – very cheap (40cents per trip regardless of distance travelled), very efficient but can be rather inconvenient with all the security checks and with most stations having upward moving escalators only. Then we WALKED A LOT!! We had a wonderful time – bonding together as a family and braving each adventure.
We have so much to thank God for:
*providing for ALL our needs
*good weather
*safety for us and our belongings
*my part-timer’s sisters who help us in many ways – booked our hotel, picked us up and sent us off at the airport, brought us to The Great Wall and treated us to dinner with their families
*our hotel is basic and clean, reasonably priced and 3 minutes away from the subway station
*a 24 hour convenience store and a bakery just outside our hotel was where we got our drinking water and breakfast – bread and fruits
*meals were great – we enjoyed the jiao zi (dumplings), cold salads and noodles
*Li-Ann was able to pass motion everyday – thanks to the dragon fruits we bought at the convenience store
*the children, especially the girls, took to the walking pretty well; they were whiney when they were tired but they took turns to sleep in the stroller
*because of all the walking, Li-Ann’s muscles had plenty of exercise; hence we found her more chatty and there seemed improvement in her fine motor skills and cognitive abilities
*I bought quite a bit of Chinese children books for very very good prices
We took tons of photos. Most of them are taken by John. Here are some of them…
I Can Do It! 