June 13, 2009

The girls got up fairly early & were “starving”.  After breakfast I had to pull Yihui away from her DS so we could go out.  We decided to go to Chaoyang Park near the 4^th ring road.  The New York city in me made me want to use the subway (which is great, clean and modern since the Olympics- BEST of all fast!).  I am realizing that people that live in Beijing have no idea where anything is in Beijing!  Last night the doormen & hotel desk staff couldn’t tell us where certain streets were & today none could give us good directions as to which subway line to take.  The maps are OK but do not list all the little streets. They sent us on line 1 with a transfer & when we got off- well… we were about 4 miles off.  Young people tried to help us but had no idea where to tell us to walk or go.  An older woman stopped & literally insisted on taking us.  She got on a bus with us & dropped us at the park.  It was the North gate & we wanted the South gate but her generosity was amazing.  We took her picture with the girls. She didn’t speak any English and was confused why Yihui spoke Mandarin but asked her several questions & seemed to understand.  We all did a lot of walking even before getting into the park in the heat so they started out tired.  The north gate is pretty but the walk to the area with all the things to do is probably 2 miles.  We saw some of the Olympic areas (beach volleyball) and Bob & I took Yihui & Zoe out on a paddle boat so they could rest while we peddled.  We finally made it to the South gate where they did 2 roller coasters & then we ate lunch and went to the new Sony science museum.  The girls were so tired we took a cab home.  The traffic is horrible and they remove the seat belts too.  I prefer the subway.

 Zoe went swimming & Yihui wanted to watch but not go in.  She says she doesn’t know how to swim but hopefully will be willing to try when she is not so tired.  

We ate in a great restaurant called Crystal Jade Palace. It is one block away in the New Oriental Mall under ground. I got nervous it would be expensive by the look but actually it was $50 for the 4 of us! Not exactly what kids like but very gourmet Chinese food. Then the girls had a dairy queen ice cream cone which both loved. Yihui at first said she didn't like ice cream- not true!

Our guide Helen called to talk to Yihui & Yihui told her she was happy. We hope so!