Saturday in Beijing

We spent Saturday doing some more sightseeing in Beijing. Before we headed out, we met a few more families that had arrived more recently. One of the new families is here from New York City was here to adopt their second little girl. Their current adopted daughter, Sophie (she is standing behind Quinn in one of the pictures) is a complete charmer. She and Quinn hit it off in a big way and they were talking Nintendo and Mario from the moment they met. Sophie, who turns 7 in a couple weeks hung around with Quinn around all day.
Our first sightseeing stop was Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City, which forms the north border of the square. Tienanmen was very impressive with a lot of activity as the locals are preparing for their 60th National Day on October first.
The Forbidden City was incredible. There are over 8000 rooms of which there are 27 different bedrooms for just the Emperor to use with any of his 72 concubines!
After these we had lunch at a great traditional Beijing restaurant famous for their Peking Duck. We had many other dishes as well, served family style on a lazy Susan. The food was great.
After lunch we drove to the section of the Great Wall that runs on the outskirts of Beijing. On the way, we made a short stop at the Olympic sports complex and got to see the Bird,s Nest Stadium. Unfortunately, we only had a short time there and couldn't get very close.
The Great Wall was amazing. We climbed the incredibly steep and irregular stairs to the third guard tower up from the parking lot. Erin and I were drenched in sweat while Quinn cruised ahead and wanted to keep going.
After buying a few souvenirs (I got a cool Chairman Mao t-shirt) we headed back to the hotel.
Since we have a very early flight to Nanchang tomorrow, we decided to just have dinner at a Pizza Hut around the corner. That has to be one of the nicest and busiest Pizza Huts in the world. The decor was very chic and modern and the pizza was the best I have ever had at a Pizza Hut.
We will be getting Lilah tomorrow at 4:00 pm. This is a day earlier than we expected since they rarely do this on Sundays.
Anyway...its getting late. Erin and Quinn are in bed snoring away and I need to get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a big day!