The 12 hour time difference has my internal clock in a mess. I went to bed last night at 8:30 pm after dinner and woke up at 10:30 pm just two hours later feeling like I had the flu and had slept for 8 hours. Looked at the clock and realized that I had only been asleep for 2 hours and I had better try to sleep again. Fell asleep to wake again at 1:30 am feeling like it had to be morning by now. Wide awake I decided to check email and work on my blog and photos to upload for Prospect. Worked for until about 4:00 in the morning and decided I had better try to get more sleep! Slept until 6:30 am and decided to go for a run. I ran about 4.5 miles outside the Hotel in the city of Beijing.
I jogged on the sidewalks past the Forbidden City and a school which was just starting for the day. Parents were dropping off students on the back of their bicycles, in cars, and some students were taking the public buses or walking. There were also many citizens walking small dogs and going to work. Very few citizens were exercising at that time. Some men were fishing in the moat of the Forbidden City with extremely long poles which almost touched the water.
Our main portion of the day was centered around meeting with the China Ministry of Education. They are the Chinese equivalent to the U.S. Department of Education. They presented to the group on the Chinese Education reform movement and the state of affairs on educating the children of China. After the morning meeting we ate lunch as a group at a nearby restaurant. The food is all so different that we are used to in America and even much different than our Chinese restaurants. The food is very spicy or plain tasting. Many, many vegetables and meats I cannot recognize. We eat duck almost every meal and for desert we have fruit which is very nice.
Our afternoon and evening was filled with touring of the Forbidden City, which was the home of the Ming Dynasty and then the Qing Dynasty. It was built from 1406-1420 and was amazing. Please go to my Photobucket account and view the pictures from today. We also toured Tiananmen Square which is the home of the Communist Party of China. The square was unbelievably large and can fit 500,000 people inside. I have posted pictures of the stone squares on the ground and they placed figured 2 people in each square for the size. The Square was protected by many military guards as well. I have taken pictures of the Communist party headquarters which all the world leaders will visit and have meetings while in China. I am sure President Obama and many presidents before him have talked about important issues with America and China in that very building.
After the tour of the Square and the Dynasty's Forbidden City we went to dinner at the Peking Duck Restaurant. Of course the specialty was duck. We have had duck in a variety of ways so far in China, But this time it came cooked with the head and feet still on the bird. The skillful chef carved the duck right in front of us and we all enjoyed the meal very much. Again, Please see the photos for a better understanding of the meal. The restaurant is very famous in China was established in 1416!!! I guess they must be very good to still be a restaurant XXXX years later. All the food is brought out on plates and placed in the center of the table. The center of the table has a spinning glass fixture which you can spin to get the dish you would like to try in front of you. You then must take the food off the center dish and get to your plate without dropping it on the tablecloth!!!. A very difficult task when you only have chopsticks and most of the food is very slippery:) I am managing to feed myself without ruining too many shirts or tablecloths. Please check out the photos of our lunch restaurant which had the aquariums full of fish and other animals you could purchase for lunch! See you tomorrow.
Questions:
1) If 500,000 people fit in Tiananmen Square and 2 people can fit on each stone square on the ground, How many stone squares are on the ground in Tiananmen Square?
2) How many years did it take to build the Forbidden City? Started in 1406 and finished in 1420.
3) How long has the Peking Duck restaurant been in business. It opened in 1416.
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