{"id":2179,"date":"2018-07-15T07:27:37","date_gmt":"2018-07-15T11:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/?p=2179"},"modified":"2018-07-15T07:32:16","modified_gmt":"2018-07-15T11:32:16","slug":"china-day-21-june-16-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/?p=2179","title":{"rendered":"China, Day 21 \u2013 June 16, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday , we were going to the Forbidden City.\u00a0 a palace complex in central Beijing.\u00a0 Containing more than 900 buildings, it was the home of emperors and their households from 1420 to 1912. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, having the largest collection of preserved wooden structures in the\u00a0 world. It was given its name because ordinary people were forbidden to enter it.\u00a0 Today there can be up to 80,000 entrants each day.
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\"\"<\/a>There was a mix-up about our driver.\u00a0 When that was settled, we learned that our guides would be\u00a0 my translator Arla and her husband. They brought along their three-year-old son as well.<\/p>\n

The Dragon Boat Festival was taking place this weekend. Thousands would attend the Dragon Boat races, but as it was a public holiday, many locals went to the Forbidden City.\u00a0 Thousands of people were on the security line. I thought to myself that if I were to get separated from Arla, I would be\u00a0 serious trouble. Just then someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around to see a gentleman pointing to Arla, who was going in the other direction! I was saved by the kindness of a stranger!\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Not only did we find the buildings magnificent, but the site deepened our understanding of Chinese history.\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I don’t think I mentioned that we had no breakfast, but Arla had brought along snacks. I am sure I didn’t mention that today was what we call a “3 H” day: hazy, hot and humid. When I was hungry and very warm,\u00a0 we made our way out of the complex. Arla said she was disappointed because she wanted to take us to a really nice restaurant for lunch, but she was not familiar with the restaurants in Beijing.\u00a0 We found a noodle restaurant that was just fine. I enjoyed spaghetti-like noodles in broth.<\/p>\n

Lunch was followed by the drive back to Gu’an. When we were dropped off at our residence, Arla gave me a photo of her son as we hugged and said good-bye. Once inside, we were told that we and the interns would be having dinner with\u00a0 Mr.\u00a0 Xu, co-owner of the preschools, and in whose home we were house guests.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Mr. Xu took us to a restaurant that had a drawing of a donkey in its logo.\u00a0 We soon found out that donkey meat was a specialty of the restaurant. We did lots of chatting, thanks to Eric, our interpreter. I was surprised to see a photo of\u00a0 my sponsor, Oivia,\u00a0 Earthplace’s nursery school director,\u00a0 and me in Mr. Xu’s phone! It had been sent to him by Olivia.<\/p>\n

Mr. Xu ordered many foods for us to try. They included donkey (of course!) has , fried fish, a vegetable salad, a spicy meat, soup,\u00a0 and a meat sandwich. We tried a\u00a0 non-alcoholic pineapple flavored “beer,” which was very tasty.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>After dinner, we walked to a nearby park. The park was a beautiful play space, filled with children and their parents. We learned that\u00a0 it was designed and paid for by a multi-billionaire who has designed\u00a0 this city and 60 others in China. Mr. Xu told us we were all welcome to return.<\/p>\n

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11,000 steps<\/p>\n

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On Saturday , we were going to the Forbidden City.\u00a0 a palace complex in central Beijing.\u00a0 Containing more than 900 buildings, it was the home of emperors and their households from 1420 to 1912. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, having the largest collection of preserved wooden structures in the\u00a0 world. It was given … Continue reading China, Day 21 \u2013 June 16, 2018<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china-2018"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2179"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2209,"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179\/revisions\/2209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}