4/20/18 Thursday, Day 2 in Beijing, Olympic Village and Great Wall!

4/20/18

Today Grace started our morning at 830 after another good breakfast. We visited the Olympic village of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It is a huge amount of space and the government bought the land from the farmers in the area and paid them large sums of money. There is lots of concern around china that they hosted the olympics and all the citizens of china paid for buildings, but only Beijing got the improvements in infrastructure. They expanded and renovated the subway system and transportation for the Summer games.

The Nest itself cost more then a billion dollars! That is where the opening ceremonies took place. There were speed skaters practicing with roller blades. Not exactly speedy, but would give the Hosers some competition! (Hayden may have a video on his vlog)

We visited the Cube where Michael Phelps won 8 gold medals and Eliza was particularly very excited to see the pool. It was a quick visit, but pretty amazing. The indoor water park took up half of the building and was absolutely incredible. We took some pictures at the pool and then got back in the van to head to the Great Wall.


5OTM relay race. I thing there was a false start!





The trip to the Great wall had lots of traffic, but the kids kept us entertained with their singing and jokes. Grace told us about the history of the Great Wall: Started in 700BC and then added on in 200BC. Then completed 4000 miles of wall to keep the Mongals out during the Ming Dynasty. The Qing dynasty after the Ming Dynasty did not maintain it since they had more modern weapons of cannons and gun powder. Now there are 7 segments remaining of the wall in China.


We took the tram up to the Wall and walked for about 2 hours. The last part was very steep up a mountain and the last part was a bit treacherous. We did a few shout outs for Hayden’s vlog and many pics!











We made some friends and the kids did a dance for this family on the Great Wall for their elemetary school. They are trying to encourage social graces in the kids to balance they use of computers and technology. Ironically, the father asked if we would dance with their son, but the son (7 years old) ran away. Our kids did the dance anyways. We will link to the video on the vlog.

They caught up with us later and took pictures together. The banner of the elementary school is in the back.





I guess we missed the sign with the rules:



On the way home we stopped at a porcelain shop where they showed us how they make the intricate vases and bowls with copper designs.



We all fell asleep back to Beijing.

I ventured out to find dinner and found a noodle restaurant with pictures and some English on the menu so I was able to order knowing what I was probably going to get (meat dumpling and beef noodles). We ate in the hotel room and then crashed.

4/19/18 Wednesday

Last night flight: We left at 5pm Monday night and arrived in Beijing Tuesday night 7pm.




The start of the flight





Mid-Flight...





Arrival after 14 hour flight in Beijing!




We meet Grace who will be our guide for our time in Beijing.

Wednesday 4/19/18

After arriving to the hotel last night and trying to reset our clocks to Beijing time, we woke up early due to the jet lag.

We ate breakfast and then we met Grace to start the day.

Our first stop was the largest city square in the world, Tianeman Square. As we exited the van, Grace made it clear that we could not talk about politics. If the guards heard such discussion, they might harass us and inquire to see our passports and visas.

Tianeman Square is centered around the first leader of the People Republic of China and the Communist Party. Mao Zedong in 1949 took control after the the revolution of 20 years during which the end of the dynastic rein of emperors .

The square is comprised of a museum on one side, the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, a government building, and the entrance to the Forbidden city.

There was an incredibly long line to see the Tomb of Mao Zedong and they could only see be in the building for 2-3 minutes.



Mao Zedong Tomb and the line to see it.



Entrance to the forbidden city with painting of Mao Zedong. They repaint the picture every year.

Mao opened the Forbidden City to the public when he became the first Chairman of the Peoples Republic of China. Previously only the emperor and his officials could enter.

The Forbidden city is the Palace for the Emperor. It has 9900 rooms and walls surrounding it for protection.




Looking out to Tianaman Square from the Emperors Road




There are seven doors to go through to the Emperors Palace, similar to these.







The number of animal on the roof symbolize the importance of the building.




The Emperor’s Thrown




The Dragon is a smbol of power: Camel Head, Serpant body and Eagle Tallans.





This is the fire departments. The Palace has burned down a few times and they needed to rebuild it, so they had water containers in case of a fire. They would melt the water under the caldron in the winter.




Tuk Tuk to a local home to learn to make dumplings for lunch.



The neighborhood



The kids were pretty good at making the dumplings and even better at eating them!



Our host and the delicious lunch!






We visited the new hospital where they had many high tech assistance. This particular one is an information robot, but he/she doesn’t understand English (or Chinese). Not quite ready for prime time.




Kung Fu show. Hayden is ready to break some iron rods over his head.






Peking duck for dinner. 7pm and we were almost all asleep at the dinner table from the long day and jetlag.

Fast asleep as soon as we got back to the hotel!

Beijing flight 4/16/18

Hanging out in the airport waiting for our flight to Beijing.  We had a crazy day of packing, but got here in time for our flight. We surveyed the kids as to how they are feeling.  They are about 99% nervous, 99% excited, and 2% in disbelief.  We may need to work on those percentages in our home school curriculum.  Lydia asked us if this was a late April fool's joke!  Lydia is already practicing her typing in preparation for doing her blog posts.  FaceTime and phone calls for our last good byes before the 14 hour flight. 
We probably will not be posting for the next two weeks, unless we get a disposable device to use for the time we are there.

HI! A quick addition to the blog to show everyone the state of our preparedness.
I spent much of this weekend on the computer completing various online applications (4 countries x 5 people = 20 visa applications, + research to see what we need for the on-arrival visas for the other 3 countries we will visit + registering our trip by country with the US State Department = countless hours of tedium, especially when almost without fail, I'd press the wrong button and everything would disappear and I'd have to begin again).

Here is a pic of our living room, "preparation central" or "disaster zone," however you want to spin it!

xo Katie

Introduction

Welcome to 5 on the Move blog.  We are starting this blog to share our experiences with our friends and family as we travel for 4 months.  We feel blessed to have the opportunity to take such a trip and are extremely appreciative of all the people who have made this possible.  From those who are helping to take care of our dog Bodie, those who are taking care of our things at home, all the colleagues at work who have supported our desire to make this dream come true. 

We have been planning this trip for more than three years.  Our desire to travel for an extended time stems from both of our experiences growing up.  Recalling some of our favorite memories as children were the trips we took with our families.  One critical aspect is the optimal time to take such a trip.  For us, we thought that the ages of our children would dictate the window of opportunity.  We wanted them to be old enough to remember the trip and appreciate the exposure to the different cultures we will experience.  And we are also conscious that as they enter their teen years, parents are not so cool.  For us, the window of time is now (Hayden 13, Eliza 10/11, Lydia 8); and we are fortunate to be able to make it happen. 

Where are we going?
China
Vietnam
Cambodia
Laos
Thailand
India
Tanzania

We chose these locations since we have not visited them previously and they are not easy locations to access from the east coast of the US.  Therefore, if we were going to visit the places, we should use this extended time.  Of note, New Zealand and Australia were definitely on our list, but we will need to dedicate a separate visit for those countries.

So, please join us as we travel for 4 months in Asia and Africa.  We leave in 2 weeks and our first stop is Beijing.  Our children will be contributing to this blog and will also have a video log site, courtesy of Hayden.  There is a link to the YouTube Vlog site from this blog. 

Katie and Brian

Trial pack

This weekend we did a trial pack for our trip. We have to get our luggage less than 33 lb since some of our flights have that as a weight limit. With all of my clothes, technology, and medications, my luggage comes out to be 29 pounds. This even includes my size 12 shoes. I don't have much extra room, but at least I made the cut. The kids packs are significantly less, so if we need to pack any souvenirs, I guess they will have to take the extra load.