Beijing, China September 2013

Hannah has wanted to go to China since Lenny went in 2008 with grad school and we FINALLY did it - completed something SO IMPORTANT to her from her bucket list. Lenny and I were VERY excited to make this happen - she and Ansley even understood that this was their Hanukkah 2013. So off on a middle of the night flight we went.....We flew into Tianjin, China (as it was SO.MUCH.CHEAPER.) and then took a 30 minute bullet train into Beijing, China. The girls thought it was super cool as we sat in "premier" class - ie. the language barrier was great we ended up there, but since it was cheap we didn't care anyhow!

From there we went and toured all one could see in a week. How we got around and a few highlights:

The Bell and Drum Towers:

Hutongs are a type of narrow streets or alleys, commonly associated with northern Chinese cities, most prominently Beijing. In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences.
The Hutong near the Bell and Drum Towers:

Jingshan Park (overlooks the Forbidden City)

The Forbidden City at Night:

Wangfujing Cathedral - was just around the corner from our hotel. Our hotel was a cute little place with two bedrooms that was perfect - the only issue was none of the cab drivers knew where it was!!

Tienanmen Square in Beijing, China
Our girls were LOVED by the Chinese people. The would all ask (in some sort of sign language or just do it) to take pictures of our girls - either with them or just of them. So Lenny took it upon himself to take their pictures too!

This umbrella "hat" was the perfect escape from everyone wanting to take Ansley's picture with their children!

National Museum of China on the boarder Tienanmen Square:

The Forbidden City

Street delicacies on Donghuamen Street!

Temple of Heaven:

Lama Temple:

The Great Wall of China:
This lift looked like something that came out of a 1960's ski slope...needless to say I didn't think we were going to make it to the top!

Summer Palace (Yiheyuan):

Paparazzi strikes again -

Beijing Olympic Park - Summer Olympics 2008

Water Cube:

Bird's Nest Stadium:

Lenny had brought Hannah home "Bibi" from when he was in China and she just found it and was surprised! We still have it in storage!

798 Art Zone:

Chinese Acrobat Show:

Our last day and a half in China was spent in Tianjin, China. We took the bullet train back to Tianjin and spent our day looking around to see what this town was all about.

Not only are people swimming in this "river" but the boat cruise we took goes in there as well. We saw LOTS of swimmers!

This was decor on a bridge in Tianjin, China:

A Italian style "town" within Tianjin. Kind of weird eating lunch knowing you are in China but FEELS like Italy!

Probably the ONLY picture of Tianjin that resembles China at all - Tianjin looks like any other US city:

We had an AWESOME vacation to say the least!