Later that Night...

That night we went to another market similar to the silk market. It was fun and I bought a great teal blue 'D&G' purse for $15. Someone told Jake that everyone goes home wishing they had bought more...and yes we did too!

We met up with these people that Jake knows from BYU. They live in Beijing now. The store off to the right was a DVD store. We bought about 15 Blue Rays for Hannah. The best part is they have English, Cantonese and Mandarin. I have looked for Disney movies in Chinese for such a long time and have never been able to find them. It was fun watching Tinkerbell in Cantonese. Hannah is so cute, she said, "First I want to watch them in English then in Chinese so I will know what they are saying." She does like watching them in Chinese but I am not sure if it is really helping her learn anything.

I know...we probably look like weird tourists but how could I not take a picture of this??

The GREAT WALL!

Going to the Great Wall was seriously one of the coolest things I have ever done. It was so hard to believe I was really there. You can see that there were many hills. The Great Wall extended through every hill you could see; it is so incredibly long. The landscape was so pretty, with all the trees and hills.























I was standing on the Wall talking to Jake and these women were staring at me. It seemed like everyone was staring at me. So I started talking to them (yep, in Mandarin...oh my goodness that was so fun to 'discover' I can speak Mandarin). I have never seen so much excitement. They said, "Can we take pictures with you?" And every single one had to be in a picture with me. Apparently they are from a different part of China and had never seen a foreigner in person, let alone one who would talk to them. It probably would get annoying if you lived there but I thought it was so funny. I mean how often do you feel like a celebrity?





Can you believe I have been to 2 of the 7 new wonders of the world and I am only 29? Okay I

Summer Palace

This is where the Emperors would go in the summer. I was able to go with Jake and his school group. We had a very long winded tour guide who was really nice but it was very cold!

These trees were so cool.

Some of Jake's classmates. I liked getting to know some of the other MBA students.
A Buddist temple. They told us we could not take pictures inside the temple since it was a sacred place. But there was a little store set up selling souvenirs and one of the other students commented that its too sacred for pictures but not to sacred to sell stuff. He said it not me!
Another of my favorite pictures from the trip.

This palace was right on a lake.

That night we went to the Silk Market. It was a place where they have lots of fake brand name US things. I didn't buy much but Jake went there quite a few times before we got there. Lets just say Jake only wears 'Armani' now. I actually really like his fake Armani shirts! He also had a suit tailor made before I got there. I wish there had been enough time and I would have had them do a pencil skirt or something.

I really packed the days in Beijing. I didn't have much time and I didn't want to miss anything big!

Tiananmen Square & Pearl Market

Tiananmen Square is right across the street from the Forbidden City. Sister Barber and I drove by but didn't get out. I took some pictures from the car. Her husband's company (a Mitt Romney Real Estate deal) provided her with a car and a driver when her husband didn't need him.


We drove to the Pearl Market right after. The streets were lined with stores. I thought it was really cute with the lanterns. It felt weird to be in Asia when it was cold.

Tons of China Pictures!

This was the first two hours of the trip. I have wanted to go to the Forbidden City for a LONG time. You would not believe how many pictures I took...This is the way condensed version. The Forbidden City is where many of the Emperors of China lived. They basically built an entire city for the Emperor and his concubines in the 1400s. You can read more about on Wikipedia. Jake had class that morning so I met with a girl who had served in Hong Kong who now lives in Beijing with her husband. We only got one picture of the two of us together and it isn't even that great but I thought I would post it anyway. There is Mao's Picture

These used to be covered in gold and they were always kept full of water in case of a fire.

Most of the tourists were Chinese.


They carved these stone dragons and in order to transport them to the forbidden city they covered the roads in water so it would freeze then they slid it into the city.

Very elaborate.
The gardens



Sister Barber and me


The city is surrounded by a moat.