Forbidden City

This tree is 500 years old

Our tour guide, 'Vanilla'

People crowding around Ivy to look at her and take her picture


Ivy dancing for the other tourists. She did not mind, at all, the attention she was getting.

We woke up at 4am China time this morning and waited around until 6:30am when breakfast was served in our hotel.
After breakfast, we walked to the Forbidden City (which is 600 years old and is where the different Emperors lived until 1923). Before we came to China, Rick and I watched the movie, "The Last Emperor", so it was pretty fun seeing it all in real life. It was amazing to see this whole city that was hundreds of years old. But one of the most surprising things was the way all the Chinese people crowded around Ivy, taking pictures and video of her, constantly. It was so weird. I asked our guide why, and she said that it was probably because a lot of the people there were tourists from rural parts of China who had maybe not ever seen a foreign child. It was pretty funny. Tomorrow we are going to try to go to either the Great Wall or Tienanmen Square. We can't wait until Sunday, though!!!