Saturday, our first full day in Beijing, we went on a guided tour of the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, and Summer Palace. The personality I associate most with Imperial China is the Dowager Empress Cixi, who was the de facto ruler of the country during the latter part of the 19th century up to her death in 1908. It was she who ordered death to the foreigners and the Boxer Rebellion. The Wikipedia discussion of her is at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Dowager_Cixi

She would not have been able to enter the Temple of Heaven, however, since it was reserved for males. The Emperor made an animal sacrifice there every year to ensure good crops. I didn't realize the Chinese practiced animal sacrifice (in this case a calf).

It was a pretty day. Our tour group was made up of a nice bunch from Australia, Poland, Sweden, the U.K., the Philippines, Malaysia, and the US (Benjie and me).

We found out the hotel has a big breakfast spread with food for every nationality, from omelets and cereal for the Americans to Chinese cabbage and fried rice for the Asians. Food is amazingly cheap. The breakfast buffet costs less than $6 and there's no tipping. For lunch today we ate a chicken breast, corn on the cob, and a large Pepsi for less than $3. The only unusually high cost is for laundry, of all things. We had to pay $40 to have a few things done, although everything was pressed and put in plastic. Public transport is 25 cents for the subway and about 13 cents for a bus ticket.

I've enjoyed the children the most. I remember from my social studies teaching days that kids in China are spoiled rotten. They would never be struck under any circumstances.

In the color schemes, blue represents heaven, green the earth, and yellow the Emperor.