Giant Panda in China - Our First Day

From the moment we arrived, we knew our trip to China would be special. We had arrived in a part of the world so different from our own and we were ready for the experience.

After the wonderful tea ceremony we traveled to our hotel (It was 7am in Beijing!) via Tienanmen Square and the famous photo of Mao Tse Tung. People were everywhere!

We needed to eat!! With Bob as our leader, we ate in a restaurant filled only with Chinese people. It seemed like a family place with fast service. The food was delicious but ordering was quite a challenge. We found someone who could somewhat understand what we wanted. We would point at pictures and he would shake his head yes or no if it was something he thought we would eat. Everyone stared at us and pointed. Leah and Maria have funny looks on their faces in this picture because everyone was staring at us. The food looks horrible but it was great...our first of many fabulous meals.

Today would be one of our only days without a guide and we chose to explore Beijing and visit the Giant Pandas at the Beijing Zoo. This is not a typical tourist attraction for Westerners, as we would soon learn would be our label. We were the only people there who looked like us! We were stared at and people took our picture as much as they took pictures of the animals! In the picture below the girls are in front of the Giant Pandas. You can see one in the background.

The Pandas were plentiful and playful moving all over, eating carrots and climbing on ladders. The bears were cool but the rest of the zoo was quite run down and dirty. It was a little shocking since we are used to the pristine and well groomed zoos in North America.


By the end of the day, we were exhausted and hungry again! Although McDonald's was everywhere, we vowed to avoid it during our trip. Our hotel was near a true Chinese shopping mall and we explored all 8 floors. We didn't find much to buy but we had an extremely yummy and spicy meal at a Mongolian Hot Pot restaurant. Once again, ordering was a challenge but the people in the restaurant were so kind and helpful and showed us how to eat everything since you cook most of the food in the pots placed in the middle of the table. The picture below is of the busy shopping street.


Next post - The Forbidden City and Summer Palace