Editor’s note: The Chinese government blocks access to a number of websites, including any blog with “wordpress” in its domain, thus preventing us from blocking directly from China during our stay here. Our friend Mike Francis has agreed to serve as our “poster” during our travels to China the next couple weeks. Thanks, Mike, for all your help. Without access, we won’t be able to respond to your comments, but we may see them in our e-mail.

BEIJING — Wednesday, July 11, 2002 – Day One Beijing and the boys did great – two temples, two museums (one never found but arduously searched for in 94-degree heat), Tiananmen Square before 8 a.m., hutong back-alley walk to find a closed restaurant, toy store, three subway rides, including a “sardine train” where we had to literally shove our way in. The boys can’t wait for the official Stanford tour the start on Sunday so they can relax a bit (and Mommy won’t be in charge anymore.)

It was a great start to our vacation, after a rough landing yesterday. The plane ride was a bit bumpy the last three of nearly 12 hours, and Rick and Will were green by the time we landed. Like both were clutching barf bags. We made it past customs and were greeted in a very crowded airline terminal by a big red Stanford “S” held by Catherine Zhong, a native Beijinger who will be one of the guides on our Stanford Alumni tour. We were a bit delirious with jetlag, and she cheerfully guided us to a car for our ride to our hotel. She shared great stories about the history of Beijing and her own family – both a father and an uncle who had attended Stanford in the 1930s, only to return to join the war effort against the Japanese. Her dad was an interpretor for the Americans helping in the air strike effort. Her uncle was an engineer who helped raise herself and nearly 30 siblings and cousins in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution, when her parents (her dad an intellectual, a chemistry professor) were sent to the countryside as part of Mao’s craziness. People have been through so much here. Catherine been a tour guide in Beijing for the last 30 years, and was just such a warm welcome to this city of 22 million people. Let’s see, that’s 7 times more people than the whole state of Oregon, right?

So Rick and Will were utterly green and exhausted by the time we fought our way through traffic to our lovely hotel located very near the Forbidden City. Will and Rick went to bed without dinner – Will woke about 12 hours later at 5 a.m. – the best dodge of jet lag we’ve ever had coming to the Far East.

After an amazing breakfast of Chinese dumplings and watermelon juice, Will was ready for the walk to Tiananmen. We thought we were going so early we would avoid the heat and the crowds. Well, we were only partially correct. We had a lovely walk in mild heat along a tree-lined canal along the Forbidden City. Shopkeepers and workers were sweeping the streets with very picturesque brooms made of tree or bush branches. An old woman did her morning calesthenics to the Chinese music on her boom box. We skirted the first of hundreds of police officers ducking across a barrier (Zao shang hao, we said. Good morning. They smiled and said back, Zao shang hao.)

Then we hit Tiananmen. It was hard to get to (it is blocked by barriers on all sides and access tightly controlled). We meandered among Chinese tour groups and finally made our way under the street to the front of the VAST building that is the Great Hall of the People. We then crossed into Tiananmen Square, had our bags scanned, and wandered into the VAST space. It was pretty crowded and not even 8 a.m. There were big lamp posts everywhere, sprinkled with surveillance cameras and loud speakers. We saw a huge line leading to Chairman Mao’s mausoleum, and decided not to go in. We would have had to check our bags somewhere “across the street,” according to the guide books, and we couldn’t face that  particular long march. It was overwhelming, really. So much history, and pain, and suffering, and hope have coalesced on this space, it was difficult to take in.

 Will wants to add in his part:  Yo,

That was what THEY thought this is what I think. As soon as we got to China I felt jetlagged. It took FOREVER to go through customs and when we did we met this guid who drove us to our hotel. There was a bee in the car and MOM was making a very big FUSS about it so dad killed it with a newspaper. It was cool. When we got there INSTEAD of going straight to the room, we had to sit at this table. I was mad then I went to sleep.

Our sweet (suite) is not big. I woke up  and we went in to the city It was DIRTY so I got MAD. We went to Tiananmen square bla, bla, It was cool. People wanted to take PICTURES with me. We went to the subway It was WAY too crowded. We went to see the Lama monastery but I thought It was llama, the animal. So when I got in there I saw two turtle/lions(I like turtle/lions—they have the body of a turtle and haed of a lion) and I’m like what? And then I realized that Lama was a person, a Buddhist. Beijing was pretty peaceful we only saw ONE brawl between pickpocket vs police men in the subway we quickly raced up the stairs.

We got lost in a Hootong, and I got mad.

FROM, WILL

Well, I can’t really top that. It was a great day – trip to see ancient bronzes and Buddhist sculpture at the Poly Museum, apparently an offshoot of the People’s Army, which is rumored to be using arms sales to fund the repatriation of ancient artifacts. Gun running and archaelogical smuggling – can’t get any better than that.

 And wonderful quiet spaces at the Lama Monastery and the Confucian Temple – but sorry, I’ve got to go. Will is done swimming at the hotel pool and we must get up to sleep, ready for more adventures tomorrow. Hope all is well with you all!