The LTC (Language Training Center) at the embassy and CLO cohosted a trip to Gubei Water Town. A few hours outside of Downtown Beijing, a developer created this water town to look old. It's only 7 years old, and it took them 4 years to make. The city manager came and met with us at the embassy to describe the package deals of activities they had and what a day there could look like. It sounded fun, so Bri and I decided to sign our family up. This is the group that ended up signing up. A few families and a lot of single adults. The LTC provided the transportation there, so luckily we saved money there since everything else was on the pricey side.
The first thing we did there was paper cutting. This gave us a whole new appreciation for the art of paper cutting and the artists who do it! We did simple cut outs of the animal that corresponds to our Chinese zodiak animal. Each of us in the family are a different animal. Bri-Bull, Mom-Rabbit, Thomas-monkey, Savvy-dog, Rhea-rat. This woman showed us how to do it and helped us as needed.
The woman helped us to add another feature on the cutting, and then framed it for us.
There was a little parade going on in the streets when we got out of the paper cutting class. We caught a little of it.
Another parade.
After lunch and parades, we went to do the snow activities we paid for. First was driving these little tractors. Surprisingly fun!
Next were these balls on ice. The kids had a ball, no pun intended, rolling around and even crashing into each other. Surprisingly no one got hurt! Thomas enjoyed pushing one of the girl's balls into the other. ;)
Then we slid around on these things. We had fun even though it was really slippery!
Ice skating was last but not least. These kids love ice skating! We've now ice skated in the U.S., Latvia, Finland, Australia, and China.
Taking a bit of a break. Thomas decided that he needed to Google how to ice skate so he could get some tips on how to improve, especially going backward. :)
These poor (fake) sled dogs are pulling the sleigh. That was another option for us but the line was too long. I think we got just as much watching as experiencing it ourselves. ;)
Dumpling makers
We had a lot of fun getting warm in this dumpling restaurant and eating dumplings. We were in no rush to get back out into the cold, but we sat and talked and laughed until we were ready.
Savannah had fun photo bombing the picture behind the bathroom "door" curtain.
Eating sugar sticks that apparently didn't have sugar?? The name did not match the flavor. ;)
We love these sugar covered fruits. You can get them with strawberries too.
To end the day and kick off the evening, they had pretty cool light and water show.
It was freezing all day!!!!!!!! As soon as we got back to the visitor's center, we bought hot chocolate from Starbucks!
It was great to get out of the house and away from the downtown craziness for the 2nd weekend in a row to see and do new things. It was also fun to mingle a little with some other embassy folks outside of work. Two hour drive home and straight to bed. Long but good day and we were so glad dad could join us and not have to work on the Olympic task force!
Year of the tiger!
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