Day 4 in Beijing

Today was an amazing, but long day. This blog will be short as we rely on the adage, "A picture is worth a thousand words." (Please see attached photos) We started the day with a trip to the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse grounds.  When American presidents have visited China (Nixon, Reagan, G. H. W. Bush, and Clinton), they have stayed at a Diaoyutai villa, and conducted their diplomatic conversations at these 800 year old grounds.  We visited the "Camp David-esque" rooms (and sat in the same chairs used by Mao, Nixon, Kissinger, Xiaophing and others).  The buildings' courtyards are majestic, the landscapes beautiful, and the ambience awe-inspiring.  The DSG personnel were extremely generous and patient as we wandered the grounds and snapped hundreds of pictures.  What an amazing and unique opportunity for us today. We ate lunch at one of Beijing's more famous dumpling restaurants.  We can safely say, each of us found a favorite dumpling as we left the restaurant stuffed.  We spent the afternoon at the Cochlear Implant School (for children up to third grade).  These young students have had cochlear implants and are now working on developing their hearing and speech.  The kids are smart, interactive and precious, yet their school is poorly funded.  We had a special and moving time with the children as we played games, made origami animals, and our Poly students put on an entertaining and humorous rendition of "The Magic Brocade."  In addition Poly's recycling group presented a charitable gift to the school. We eagerly look forward to seeing the children on Thursday for our second visit. From the CIS, we raced across town to celebrate Jessie's 18th birthday by attending the Chaoyang Acrobatics Show.  Our guide procured us seats in row 2 as we watched this display of incomprehensible twists and turns, strength and power, and courage. We left the theatre stunned by the acrobats' talents.  My back still hurts just thinking about the contortionist.  To finish celebrating Jessie's birthday, we ate pizza in an ex-pats area of Beijing.  At dinner, one of Lexi's friends spoke to the group about studying abroad and mentioned ways to study/work overseas.  Later this evening we enjoyed a wonderful chinese sponge/whipped cream birthday cake.  Tomorrow the pace continues as we head to the Summer Palace, visit School Year Abroad, and have dinner with Chinese families.