We had tried to pack for the cold - way up north there - and having spent the past few years in Illinois we thought we knew cold. But we hadn't really packed our Illinois winter gear because, well, we were going to be living in the tropics, right?!
We had a direct flight to Beijing and whilst some of us were doing research on the activities of the next few days (we had organized an english speaking guide and driver for each day)
others were happy just to be on a plane again (boy do I need to pay more attention to Sebastien's ears in the shower!)
We arrived and couldn't find a taxi that would fit the four adults and two children plus all the baggage until Goran found us a van!Hmm, looks like that taxi sign just comes right off once you negotiate the price to the city...
He had his tea ready for the day - like many drivers we see - but Alex thought it was seaweed!
So Goran was riding shotgun, 
Alex was next to her new best friend, Kat 
(and made sure Koala got a good look at this new place), 
and Sebastien was just pleased that Daddy let him play with the boarding passes.
After checking into the hotel, we had some time left and decided to check out the Silk Market that sells lots of really cheap goods plus knock-offs of international brands. Brett and Sebastien caused quite a stir
and Alex got a work out with her "Bu Yao!" We did end up buying a wallet and a pair of shoes each for Sebastien and Alex. Sebastien's shoes squeaked, which he loved, and Alex was very taken with some orange silk shoes - 
not quite appropriate winter shoes but much loved - as you will see!
Let's just say that Brett rather enjoyed the back and forth of bargaining - a little too much perhaps!!Then we went home to bed - we were to meet our guide and driver at 8am the next morning to drive to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.
The day was clear but cold - very cold. We were all bundled up and still cold!
Tiananmen Square is huge (around 100 acres) - and having seen the June 4th massacre/incident (depending on whether you are not chinese or chinese) on television, it was quietening to be there in person.
I ventured to ask our guide (who was perhaps a little older than us, but not by much) whether he was able (or allowed) to discuss what happened in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989 and he seemed a little hesitant but readily told us that he'd been in middle school then (grade5-9) so his recollection is from that perspective. He was adamant that there were no deaths and that the media beat it up. I felt that he was a little uncomfortable with the conversation so let it drop at that.We walked through the square, with our toes starting to freeze, and saw the flag complete with it's military guard (standing on a box) who had just relieved the previous guard. There are at least three guards on three sides of the flag area. They looked a lot warmer than us!
We then turned to the entrance gate of the Forbidden City (UNESCO and World Heritage Site) which has several archways - the central one is part of the Imperial Way and was for the Emperor only (excpet for the Empress on her wedding day), his wives and high-level officials entered through the ones immediately to the left and right whilst the lower officials and others entered through the outside ones. You can tell if a building is for royalty as the roofing tiles are golden rather than green or red. Here are Brett and Sebastien outside the main gate known as the Meridian Gate.
Although winter, we were but a few of the very many tourists thronging the area - and we wouldn't like to visit in peak tourist season! We were very interested to see how the chinese parents carried their young babies in the cold weather. 
The pink scarf lay on top of the infant who had been strapped with a cloth to the back of the mother. Not one square inch of that child was visible and I'm not sure how much air it was getting - but probably just enough!We walked through the main gate to find...
another gate - the Gate of Supreme Harmony! 
Yes, the Forbidden City is huge, over 70 hectares, and has some 980 rooms according to Tony our guide. The doors of the gates are decorated by nine rows of nine nails as 9x9 was said to be the number of the Emperor. The second level of the gate had an actor playing the part of the Emperor (wearing yellow) and demonstrated that only the Emperor was allowed to be on the upper level of this gate, though soldiers were stationed on the upper wall throughout the Palace.
Here is Tony explaining some of the finer details of the Palace arrangements to our group.
We made our way into the outer court which had a large square with a river flowing through it with about five stone bridges.
In spite of the cold, Alex took some convincing to wear her beanie and gloves...
It looked towards the Hall of Supreme Harmony where the Emperor conducted public business. 
It has stone stairs leading up to it and an intricate stone carving path in the centre pathway that only the Emperor was able to be carried over - not walk on as he was always carried on a sedan of sorts. Even today tourists are not allowed to walk on it. Here Brett and Sebastien are posing in front of it and you can clearly see the golden terracotta roof tiles.
We have come across these statues - the guardian lions - throughout China and know that they are traditional and come as a pair. The male plays with a ball (representing the flower of life), 
and the female with a cub (representing the cycle of life).
Many of the ones we've come across (especially in temples and outside restaurants) have a ball representing a pearl in the mouths that rolls around but is too large to remove from the mouth without breaking some teeth. They are a traditional display of a family's wealth or social status because they were expensive to make.And then, a problem. Not only did Alex need to go to the bathroom...now! But our camera ran out of battery power. A crisis on two fronts! After checking 2 other bathrooms, we eventually came across one that was open. But the search for batteries was fruitless. So we will get some photos from our guests (eventually). I will save the rest of our tour until then.
After our tour (half a day) and with our toes freezing we went to a lovely lunch organized by the tourguide - but not until after we'd seen a "Silk Factory". Dubious though we were we still went and our suspicions were correct. We had been taken to a workshop of sorts that demonstrated to us how silkworms made their cocoons, were killed and then the silk unravelled and made into various items including bedspreads and doonas/comforters. The pressure to buy was subtle but there - and we had two hungry kids with us - so we said enough and went on to lunch. The rest of the afternoon was spent checking out the Silk Market and making purchases including silk sheets and a bone/bamboo mahjong set for Mummy. We had to have a good night's sleep as the next day we were heading off to see the Great Wall!
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