Friday, June 18

Everything has gone smoothly so far. I had most of yesterday to myself until the group got here. Our hotel has a beautiful pool which so far I have had to myself. Eddie Ruck's test strips assure me the water is safe. The life guard, who had nothing else to do, gave me a Chinese lesson on tones -- still the great challenge. People are impressed with how large my vocabulary is, once they realize what I am saying. Oh well, I keep trying and they keep laughing.

Today we started out at Mao's tomb -- he is dead in more ways than one. There is a huge Coca Cola billboard looming over the mausoleum. We trekked around Tianamien which is closed for repairs and spent the morning in the Forbidden City. It is indeed fascinating, but worth a whole day. I am glad I will get back in there. The group is getting along nicely although the tensions about shopping come up continually as you don't have to go into a shop, the hawkers come up to you incessantly. I brought $100 in single dollar bills for such occasions, and we have decided that you can probably buy all of China bit by bit for one dollar, much preferred to the local currency.

For lunch we took pedi-cap rides (the modern update of the rickshaw) into an old neighborhood, called a hutong, and actually had lunch in someone's house. They did not eat with us, but they did serve a great meal and the children hid behind the door and giggled and then darted in to give us pictures they had made. Among our presents were some refrigerator magnets, so we showed them how to put the kids' pictures on the fridge and ended up not taking them with us. Later we went to the Temple of Heaven -- a truly splendid structure with a small but interesting museum about Chinese musical instruments.

All in all a fabulous day -- clear, dry, sunny, not too hot with a slight breeze, not what one typically gets in Beijing, so we made the most of it.