One of the ‘things’ to do in Beijing is see Mao’s body.  It was embalmed in 1946 and is publicly displayed every morning.  The lines are long, so it’s recommended to be up and waiting before the sun comes up.  Being the good tourists that we are, we were walking towards Tainanmen Square, where his…

At this point, we were half way through our trip.  We again had pastries for breakfast and then found ourselves at the Hongqiao Pearl Market.  This four-story shopping center had anything and everything you could possibly want at a discounted price.  Electronics.  Pearls.  Clothing.  Tea sets.  You name it, and it was probably there.  Everything…

We again woke up at 4 am.  This would be an ongoing trend for the rest of the trip (and unfortunately, would carry through for a few weeks back in The States).  Matt was due to arrive around 10 am, so we headed out to find a new café before meeting up with him.  With…

Tony and I left Atlanta around 11 am on Saturday morning.  My mom (we’ll call her Amelia) flew into the Atlanta airport from Columbus that morning.  We were meeting my brother, Matt, in Seattle.  From Seattle we had a 12 hour flight to Beijing, China.  After meeting my brother, he found out that he wasn’t…