Silk Factory and Forbidden City

Teresa has sent another report from Beijing. They fly home on Tuesday, so this is probably the final set of pictures, but I'll post a link so that you can follow their plane as they make their way from Beijing - Toronto - Halifax. Here's Teresa's post:

Yesterday was a silk factory, Tian’anmen Square and the Forbidden City. 

Mia loved the silk factory.  She was fascinated by the whole process of how they make the silk.  We were able to see the worms and the cocoons. A single cocoon with one worm can be unwound into a single thread.  The double pods are meshed together and so they are used for quilt fill.  Beautiful items!  You can see Mia holding a cocoon and helping to make a quilt.

Tian’anmen is the largest square in China.  It is surrounded by the government offices, the south gate, the National museum and to the north the Forbidden City.  Many soldiers and people in the square but Mia and her friend Willow were happy enough to skip.  

The Forbidden City is a 3 hour tour...in January...in the cold.  But we powered through and saw the offices, living quarters and Imperial garden of the Emperor.  Nina still needed to eat and so she had a bottle about midway through.  One is not a true China adoption parent until you have prepared a bottle at a tourist site, prepared a bottle on a moving bus and changed a diaper in a Chinese washroom at a tourist site.  

Today was a free day.  We went to a dumpling restaurant for lunch.  10 of us ate for 300 rmb (about $50) and it was delicious! Then off to the “New Market” where we found some great deals and some aggressive sales people trying to sell us tourist items and knock off name brands. Fun!!

Tomorrow we pack.  We need to leave the hotel at 12:30 to get the baby visas and get to the airport.  I hear snow is predicted for Tuesday in NS.