The Vander Ploeg's take Shanghai: Beijing Trip #2. This time we roasted instead of froze!!

Ok, so when I left off my parents had arrived without incident on May 6th. We had celebrated both kids' birthdays and now it was Friday, May 10. Officially little man's 4th birthday (gulp!). Ben took the day off work and I had pulled the kids out of school for the day. Early in the morning we headed out for the Honqiao Railway Station for the last time. Again we boarded the train without incident and settled in for the 5 hour journey.
They don't even look jet-lagged at all, do they? :) They really did do well with the transition. It helps that I packed each day to the fullest to keep them awake!

We had hired a driver this time instead of a tour company. This guy was brilliant. He was Chinese and was working in a factory when he was younger and decided he didn't want to live the rest of his life that way. He watched American movies until he learned English and then was hired by a tour company as a tour guide. He worked there for years and then quit, now working by himself. He was so knowledgeable about Beijing and was really nice!
Anyway, he picked us up from the railway station and drove us straight away to The Forbidden City. No time to waste this time around! I was initially seriously irritated bc he picked us up in this tiny car-like thing. We had 6 people, all our luggage and Coop's stroller! He said he wasn't allowed to drive his minivan on that day- Beijing has regulations on what day each car can drive to help with the traffic. You know which days you can use your car based on your license plate. Interesting concept. I digress...

So, he dropped us off on the far side of the compound and we had to walk around to the front to get in. It was SO hot!! Very odd considering the last time we were in this place we had to stop in the souvenir shops to warm up. On this day we were going in them to get some a/c!

See? Nice weather, lots of walking, seeing amazing Chinese culture and history....

Pics from our second trip to the Great Wall. MUCH warmer this time!

This is the village at the bottom of the wall. You hike up this brick road, past all these booths trying to sell you every "I've been to the Great Wall" t-shirt or Chinese hat or whatever. Yeah, we totally bought stuff. We're those people... ;)

This was right before we got on the chair lifts to go to the base of the Wall. It's hard to describe because the Wall is at the top of the mountains, so you have to get up to that point to be able to walk on the areas that have been maintained and restored for visitors.

Standard chairlift up to the base of the Wall. Cooper LOVED the ride. Giggling the whole time.

On our way up, we saw one of the options to get back down. You can either ride the chairlift back down, or go on sleds on these tracks that wind back and forth. You know what we did! ;)

This was an area of stairs that had not been maintained and restored. It gives you a good idea of how much effort it takes to keep the area nice for the millions of visitors they get each year.

The view from the top. There are 2 areas of the wall they have restored. We were on the section named Mutianyu.

Momma and the hat she bought at the base village. Still gotta love the Chinglish. ;)

Some sections were extremely steep! These sections were closed in the winter because of all the ice and snow, so it was fun to be able to explore them this time.

After a few hours of exploring, it was time to take the sleds down. Yes, this is a picture of a random woman on one of the sleds, but I needed to get a picture of SOMEONE on a sled so I could show you guys! Mom chose to take the chairlift back down.

Coop loved the sled ride as well!

On our way out of the village area, we got to walk by more souvenir shops. They'll give you best friend price, I promise! ;)

After some rest and food and naps at the hotel, we decided to head out and explore the streets of Beijing. We heard there was a night market that had good street food, so we decided to head there and see what was being offered. We should have eaten at a Subway or something before going...

This was the menu for most of the booths that were there. Not joking....

I have NO idea what's in these drinks, but Soph was desperate to have one. So obviously I said absolutely not. Who knows what could be in there!!! And it was NOT soda.

Mom and Dad bought some dough-type ball things with some kind of seafood in them. They totally ate them too. I did not. I was very hungry that night and legit could not find anything that didn't scare the daylights out of me. I just couldn't talk myself into it.

Mom, Sophie and Ben ate some strawberries. Now, I can already hear you saying, Lori, why wouldn't you eat these? They were coated in some kind of gelatinous something, that's why. Nope.

These next few pics show what has to be joke food. Like, I double-dog-dare-you food. Cause we all know there is no nutrition in this stuff. It's just to see if you'd actually do it.

The next day we headed to the Summer Palace. We didn't visit this area with Donna and Claude because it was so cold. It's a beautiful area that was the summer home for Chinese Royalty and is now just for visitors and tourists. Lots of sculptures, water and gorgeous architecture.

The palace was built into the side of a mountain on a lake. It was cool to see how the managed to fit these massive stone structures into the side of a mountain!

The view from the very top of the palace. Everything you can see is a part of the Summer Palace property. Lots of boats tooling around the lake area.

I can't remember what Sophie was throwing attitude about, but her sass was cracking me up.

And just like that, she's over it. Oh now I remember! It had to do with her hat. It was super sunny, I wanted to protect my sweet child from the damaging rays of the sun, and she didn't want to wear it. I believe we had to eventually bribe her. Hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.