Beijing Day Three - Dinosaurs!

Waking up at 5AM is sleeping in in this time zone where night is day and day is night. We all felt rather refreshed and ready for the day. After a lovely American/Chinese breakfast in the hotel, we jumped in a cab and headed out to pay our respects to the Chairman. You are not allowed to bring in any bags or cameras when you visit Mao, he lies in state only four hours a day and the rest of the time he is kept on ice. (If only the Chinese were as careful with Mayonaise) So we have no pictures of the Chairman, but here is the front of the "People's Hall" where Mao lies in state. Since Matt had to hold everyones bags, everyone else went through first to see Mao. Kris bought Libby a Chrysanthemum from the lobby to place on Maos tomb. We were the only white people there that day. When libby placed the flower next to Mao's tomb, the very young and stoic Hall Guard couldn't help but smile at Libby. When it was Matt's turn to go through, Libby asked to go again, so she got to see Mao twice.

After Mao, we went to the Museum of Natural History. Since we weren't able to get a cab to take us, we were approached by a pedicab (bicycle cab) who said he could take us to the museum. we asked how much? in chinese, and he made a hand sign for 3. We assumed 30 Yuan, about $5 US and what a cab costs across town. There is room for 2 people in a cab, so we split up and went in two cabs. After about 15 minutes negotiating the heavy street traffic on a bicycle, we arrived at the Museum and then the cabby pulls out a card that says in English....the Charge is 300 Yuan because Pedicabs are important cultural preservation. So they were asking for $50 US per cab, for a 15 minute bicylcle ride. Let me tell you, this is basically theft. Matt told him in English that that was just silly, we handed them 200 Yuan each and told them to get lost. Which they eventually did after much argument. 400 Yuan is about $60. Still basically extortion, but it was a good lesson in being specific beforehand about price. We enjoyed the pedicab, and would definitely take another one, of course we'll negotiate price ahead of time. It was a lot of fun to see the city and the traffic on a bicycle.

The Museum is amazing and is highly recommended for all families who are coming this way. We spent about 3 hours or so there and really enjoyed it. There are several very large dinosoars, the exhibits are all very interesting, we especially liked the Darwin exhibit. It was a travelling exhibit from the American Museum of Natural History and was exceptional. Libby loved the dinosaurs and all the taxidermed animals. She also really enjoyed the 3d movies about the dinosaurs, the effects were very cool and included being sprayed with water, getting hit with a puff of warm dinosaur breath, and vibrating seats.

After the Museum, it was getting late and after about 15 Nervewracking minutes standing outside in 27 degree weather with Libby and not being able to get a cab (again!) Kris stepped up to the plate and asked for directions to get a cab from the traffic cop, she managed to be understood well enough for the cop to point to the spot to wait. Then a sweet chinese woman who saw were were struggling to get a cab, gave us her cab, that she had just flagged down. Once inside Kristin used her Mandarin again to say "ma fa ni, di wa dao, Ji Chang" which means take me to the airport. He looked at her funny and she realized her mistake and said "Jo Dian" which means hotel and he nodded in understanding (Thank you FEI!) then she gave him the hotel card with the address on it and before you know it we were home.

We finished the day with an exquisite hot pot (lamb, beef, vegetables, tofu, noodles). When Kris asked for noodles, the wait staff repeated "noodles" and laughed uproariously so kris said "mien" and we got noodles. The hot pot here made me really appreciate what we have in Portland. The Beijing Hot Pot restaurant on 82nd avenue is very authentic. Our food here in Beijing was basically the same as we got in Portland.