Our last day in Bejing...

Saturday was a busy day for us in Beijing.  We spent the morning learning about adoption paperwork and procedures.  We received three new pictures of new sister and learned more about how she is doing right now.  We can't wait to see for ourselves!

After lunch, we toured Tiananmen Square and the nearby Forbidden City.  Tiananmen square is vast and has a long history.  It now holds one of the largest tvs in the world.  On the day we visited it had special decorations because the Chinese National Day holiday was just ending.  You can see our great tour guide holding the little flag that kept us from getting lost... we toured with a group of other adoptive families. 

The Forbidden City was originally so because it was the home of the Chinese Emperors and common people were forbidden to pass through its gates.  It was the only home in China allowed to have 12 beams at its entrance--marking it as a structure for royalty.  It is a huge ancient palace and grounds--occupied until the 1920s.  The film "The Last Emperor" is the story of the last emperor to occupy the palace.   The grounds include many beautiful bronze and stone sculptures.  There is a set of large stone snake slabs that weighed several tons.  All of the work on this structure was completed by hand.  The stone slabs for carvings were pulled over ice in the wintertime to get them to the palace and into place.  In our pictures you can see big brother standing by one of the trees in the courtyard that is over 400 years old.  Big brother wants you to know that the emperor has to pass through 3 gates to get into the Forbidden City.  If you touch all 9 bolts/knobs in the doors, you are supposed to be lucky later in your life--big brother did this.  (He thinks his good luck already came, because he was allowed to purchase a Sn*ckers bar today.)