The day that we spent at the hotel we decided to try another of the Marriott's restaurants. We had lunch at "Pearl" a restaurant that featured Cantonese food. I was not especially familiar with Cantonese food before eating here. It was very... different! Some of the dishes we had with our meal, (we ordered a lunch set course,) were fantastic! Other dishes were so so. Some of the dishes defy reason and explanation. Both the ingredients and some of the food itself was completely foreign to me. It was a great experience, though, and as always they took great care of us here.
Lilia checking out the scene in her fancy high chair.
The spread. It was soooooooooo much food. We had soup and two or three appetizers, vegetables, noodles, and two main dishes. I also had jasmine tea for my throat. Mmmm.....
What is this? No really, what is it? 100 bones to the first person to identify this mystery dish. I ate a little. It was ...
ok. Cliff did not care for it at all. (I'm not really going to give you any money, but it would be cool to find out what this is. I'm going with cartilage.)
Ceiling. Ooohh ahhh... It was so great having so many restaurant choices right there in our hotel. It makes traveling so much easier with a child and we were able to try so many new things!
Our last full day was devoted to the Temple of Heaven and Peking Duck for dinner. This is first ring of gates/ entrances to the Temple.
Lilia was getting stopped every 15 ft for pictures. We finally asked to pose right back! This lady wanted like 5 pictures with Lilia so we asked for her picture too!
Finally we are approaching the Temple!
It was very colorful and ornate. A little too colorful for me. The primary color scheme is a little loud for my taste, but admittedly striking to the casual observer.
I took a couple shots of this little girl and I tried to find the most modest to post. I'm not trying to be creepy or anything, it's just that I was simultaneously fascinated and appalled. I guess that they don't diaper their kids in China. We came home and looked it up. Sure enough, a minute after this picture was taken the little girl squatted and... well, you know, right there on the Temple of Heaven steps! I guess she is on her home turf and they can do what they want, but still! It seemed a little more than strange to me.
Another shot
This was the restaurant we chose to have our Peking or Beijing Duck at. It was very posh and sophisticated. They were wonderful to us and to Lilia.
Along with my water I also ordered fresh kiwi juice. It was so delicious!
They carve your duck right at your table! Cliff and I split an entire duck, had juice drinks, rice, and they brought us grapes and sorbet for desert. Altogether we spent less than $45. This was a really nice restaurant too!
The condiments served with the duck. there is a plum sauce of some sort and various pickles and veggies. Sugar and ginger? also served as condiments. The duck is wrapped up in very thin pancakes and eaten with the various condiments. It was really delicious, but then I have always been a fan of duck.
This place is known for their less fattening preparation of the famous dish. A lot of people don't care for Peking Duck because they find it to be too fatty or oily. Ours was fantastic. The skin was crispy and the meat very tender and moist. Not too oily at all! They had an open kitchen where you could watch the duck being roasted. Definitely a fun end to our trip!
And here is Lilia at the airport on our way home. She was such a trooper and fun little travel buddy that we decided to get her a gift before we left.
Checking out her new friend, Panda
So we made it back in once piece and definitely enjoyed our trip. Lilia got a panda and we all got to see the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and the Temple of Heaven. Throw a little Peking Duck into the mix and I would say that our trip was a resounding success!
There is the famous painting of the Chairman. We learned from our tour guide that this painting is redone every year. The government wants to keep this fella looking crisp and clean. Liu joked that he seems to be getting younger and younger as the hair line fills in a bit each year...
This is how Lilia feels about it all. What a face.
Don't these kids look YOUNG? Everyone in our group wanted a picture of the Chinese Military Guard. Liu joked that while we were snapping pictures of them all they were thinking about was how they would love to have their picture taken with that (pointing to Lilia) chubby American baby!!! 
I'm sorry I don't have more to say about the square. It was very large and surrounded by important government/ party buildings and I guess there is a Mausoleum to Mao at one end. We walked by it but didn't go in. 
After visiting the square we made a quick stop at a small silk factory. It was really cool! We got to see how they make silk and learn about the development and lives of silkworms. In the picture below we are being show the developmental stages of the silkworm.
In this room they are actually boiling the cocoons and unwinding the silk thread.
There are the cocoons, just bobbing around. After the demonstrations in this room we were escorted into another room where we were shown how silk is used to make quilts and bedding and pillows. They also had a gift shop where we bought... water bottles. Ha! We also bought a couple of silk prints, but I wasn't really that impressed with their prices for clothing and dresses. Chinese silk dresses and clothing have never been my favorite. Fun to look at, but not really my style.
Lilia thought is was so cool that she fell asleep. She slept like this all the way to our next stop - a jade museum and lunch!
JADE! Oooohh ahhh. So did you know that in China women are traditionally given a jade bangle when they get married rather than a diamond ring? I had no idea! And apparently the green colors that we Americans are so accustomed to seeing and wanting are actually not the highest quality of jade? I guess the rarest and most expensive jade is actually white. Who knew?
This museum was HUGE. We only saw a fraction of it.
I thought that this was pretty amazing. Look at all of that detail!
A huge white and very expensive cabbage. Yes. After all of this we motored on to the Great Wall! See the post below!!!
