beijing {part two}

here is the second post of our time in beijing.. 

{see the first part here} this post highlights tiananmen square,

the forbidden city, street markets, food, and just exploring the city.

we could not believe the size of the forbidden city, and the history was

so interesting to us. we asked our tour guide a million questions as we 

walked through the forbidden city and learned so much!

husband's favorite thing to do ^^ ask for pictures with guards

chase & general mao

^^ ha! a 4 star toilet! how fancy..{we soon realized this actually was really nice, because most public bathrooms in china have no toilets, no toilet paper, and no soap or paper towels! the toilets are in the ground and it's pretty different.}

in beijing, this was as close to an american breakfast that we could get..

every other option was veggies, meat, and rice!

^^ more fans of chase, wanting pictures with him constantly ^^

^^ loved the pretty jade..and we learned it's good for your heart if you wear it on your wrist! ^^

^^ glad to see they were representing the USA well, ha ^^

^^ an example of how most of our lunches/ dinners were...family style with a group!

AKA: mystery dishes spinning around the table! ^^

street market with the craziest food i had ever seen!

^^ dumplings, the one thing we enjoyed ^^

^^ this picture kills me! so tall, plus a surprise new friend in the background ^^

starfish for lunch, anyone?

or, how about some snakes on a stick?

better yet, scorpions!

^^ we stopped by the 2008 olympic stadium on our way to the airport for the next city ^^

said goodbye to our beijing tour guide..we loved jing!

goodbye, beijing! on to xi'an!

thank you for the history lessons, sights, heat, and crazy streets.

XO