Beijing Day 1

I met up with Ryan's cousin Caroline who is living here in Beijing. She was fantastic and took me to the Great Wall and the Summer Palace.

At the Great Wall I had a singular experience. A 20 something, hip looking couple made the universal "will you take a picture?" gesture. Sure, I smiled back. We did an awkward back and forth dance until I finally realized that they wanted to take a picture with me. Apparently not all the world dislikes Americans :)

the couple who wanted to take their picture with me

A similar thing happened at a small noodle shop. The owner really wanted me to take a picture with them and then have Caroline print it out and bring it back. Ryan and I were hounded at the Bird's Nest as well. My own 15 minutes of fame.

one of Ryan's colleagues at the Bird's Nest

We went to dinner at family style Chinese restaurant. Tons of beautiful food spread out on a huge Lazy Susan.  My aversion to spicy foods saved me from sampling some of the more exotic things (pig knuckle) but I did have some intestine. All in all, though, it was really good.