A month ago, we tested Ella's patience on a flight to Beijing. All of the Dora episodes, colorings, naps, and play kept her occupied for more than 13 hours. Good job!!
All that flying finally got us to Beijing. Here's the new impressive airport. So different from the first time I was there in 1997!
Lao Lao finally got to meet Ella!
Mommy and Daddy finally can begin to sin. Gluttony and Greed!
Here are some delicious duck hearts.
Spicy and Numbing hot pot in Chengdu, Sichuan. Unfortunately, we couldn't find this pot in the stores. Daddy had a sore throat for 4 straight day while we were in Chengdu.
And we had to pass on these chili pepper snacks. Probably a good thing!
Althought we weren't smart enough to pass on Yak sausage at Little Lhasa in Chengdu. Kudos to Daddy who actually could stomach these, cause they reminded me of the the Safari area of zoos (the smell).
We also came across Chinese style "Starbucks" and beer houses in Chengdu.
The Chinese easily surpasse Americans in practicing capitalism and shopping there is nothing like it is here. So, when in Rome...
Here are just a few of the things we purchased.
These are "tea pets." I don't know if there's any practical use to them, but super CUTE! You're supposed to pour left over tea on them and keep them watered with tea, so that their coloration will change.
There's also these adorable earrings.
We happened to find an Ella doll!
A pig made of caramel, which Lao Lao thought looked more like a fat rat!
Fabric shopping on this trip was a little disappointing though. The only thing I found was this retro woodland animal print, which I do LIKE very much.
Aside from all of the eating and shopping, we also managed to squeeze in some sight seeing.
Here are the ruins of
Yuen Ming Yuan in Beijing.
One of the many Chairman Mao paintings in the
capital museum. They were all very George Washingtoneque, which was a little odd...
This was probably the largest museum I've ever seen!
This is the famous
Leshan Buddha outside of Chengdu in Sichuan.
We were lucky to only have lined up for about 20 minutes to start going down the cliff to see the Buddha. Our tour guide said she's been in line for 2 hours before.
Here's an old couple in their 90s making the same trek we made to see the Buddha! Hope I can still walk in my 90s.
We saw so many temples on this trip. These are the unique temple decor atop of Mt. Emei in Sichuan.
Here's Ella after her prayer session at one of the temples we visited.
We also had the honor of taking this photo with an old monk at the Golden Summit at Mt. Emei.
But her favorite things at these temples were the stone lions .
These stone lions were more interesting to Ella than the little baby Pandas we saw.
Some of the coolest things we saw were not at any tourist sites we visited.
Here's an entire book of the "Art of War" woven in silk!
Uncle Dominic's garage.
Even dogs in China are stylish!
