Where in the world is LJ?: Day 2 Beijing

Went to use the pool this morning and followed the arrow to "Pool" (an obvious decision). Came to an isolated hallway with a locked door and a door leading to service elevators. Roamed around and thought maybe the pool might be in the gym. Not seeing it (it ended up being behind the frosted glass) I went wandering aimlessly without finding another human. Happened upon a motel staff woman but we did not understand each other. I showed her the sign which was in Chinese and English and did the international sign for where and even tried to panomime swimming (don't know why I tried that since it was uncessful when playing Cranium at Rob & Rachel's). At last I ran into a sister and she said it was in the gym but the doors were locked. Finding a phone I called the "guest services" (a tool that I've had to use quite a bit for instructions on "how to"). She called the pool and said that it was now open.Upon entering the locker room you are given a rubber bracelet with a number corresponding to a locker. Found the locker and was faced with another dilema. How do I open it as there were no handles and no keylock? I was near to giving up as I was convinced I needed some technical degree to do anything but sleep at this hotel! Finally it occurred to me maybe this rubber bracelet somehow would open it. Putting it up to the locker number and the door popped open. Out to the pool after a cleansing shower (this also was an effort to figure which of the three knobs turned on the shower which was directly above my head (note: not good to look up while you are trying to turn on the shower)). The swimming thing I hoped would be a no brainer, but here too I apparently need some sort of eductation as for some reason I could not float in this pool.

The pool area is decked out with lounge chairs, some of which are tiled ergonomic loungers that are heated! There is relaxing spa like music playing. The locker rooms are themselves spalike. There is a hot tub and sauna, more extravagant showers, hairdryers, mirrors, comfy slippers and rolled towels. Discouraged by the earlier experienced I merely showered and left too fearful to try and figure out any more technology. (Sidepoint: All this technology and yet you can't drink the water nor even brush your teeth with the tap water at this hotel!)

Off to the Temple of Heaven. People regularly gather here to engage in a wide

variety of activities. Line dancing, ball room dancing, Indian dancing (here the

men put on fake bushy mustaches), Chinese traditional dance, singing, playing

games and all this is a regular occurrence. A couple of our group got to join in

briefly in some dancing as we were quickly moved from one area to the next.

Lunch was a Peking/Beijing Duck (they are one in the same as the city

of Beijing was formally Peking). There were quite a few side dishes

including a general tsao chicken, fried fish, something we think was

seaweed, greenbeans, rice (of course), meatballs and other dishes including one that

Aaron and Carl say was a fried hot dog (I'm not thoroughly convinced of that, although it was a familiar taste the shape wasn't). We were

throughly stuffed (SEE PHOTO).

After lunch we went to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City. This place is huge! Just when we thought we were at the end there was yet another courtyard area that the emporer lived in. The extravagance was somewhat lost on us as we were hit by the vanity of it all. Carl commented on how they built this thing on the backs of all these slaves in order to seperate themselves from the people, gathered all this wealth and then lived in fear of loosing it all and being assassinated.
Tianamen Square is an extremely important place to people in

China as it represents a change in the country and for the people. People come from all over the country to visit this area and many have never seen outsiders before. Several came up to us to ask if they could take a picture with us. A couple of young girls even tried to sneak pictures of themselves with us. When we discovered them they were going to run away but we invited them to come and actually get a picture with us.