Exploring Beijing

2 days after our arrival, with the health exam results taking so long we seized the opportunity to explore the city. I couldn't believe that I was running around Beijing with 2-3 little boys, not speaking a word of Mandarin....but I did have money, my address, and a cell phone.

One unexpected blessing in Beijing is that it is really easy to get around. I thought I would be trapped inside an apartment, only being able to walk to and from school. The subway system is amazing, and it is in both English and Mandarin. You can easily get around by taxi by showing the cabby the address to where ever you want to go. So we were able to get around those first few days without using much if any Mandarin.

During the first few days in Beijing we used them to both get things set up and to explore the city. The two places we went to were the Beijing Botanical Gardens and to the Science Museum. Both were amazing.

We had fun walking around the botanical gardens. As part of being there we saw a honey bee museum and a butterfly museum/butterfly house. It was so amazing. We got to see many butterflies that we had read about in books. One butterfly we saw was one that masquerades as a leaf, but until we went to the butterfly house I didn't realize that the inside wings were so colorful and beautiful. It is just the outside of their wings that look like brown leaves.


The boys played so hard that day that they turned the bath water brown and all kinds of things were floating on the top. Gross even by Chinese standards!

The science museum was simply incredible. 5 floors on hands on exhibits for children. The first floor is really for kids 7 and below. It introduces you to the various branches of science through games, toys, puzzles, building structures, etc. For example there is one exhibit where you get to try to build a house that is earth quake proof. In another exhibit you watch baby chickens hatching. There are computer simulated programs. A river where you can practice building dams, etc. The upper 4 floors go into great depths. For example in the first floor the health and body area lets you pretend to take care of patience, brush a giant set of teeth. In the upper level the body area explores different diseases, lets you travel through the bloodstream in a giant submarine, play a video game where you are the white blood cell shooting viruses, take a journey inside an MRI machine, etc. The boys will be regulars at that museum while we are living in Beijing.