China trip Day #5 Beijing

Beijing Olympics. The birds nest, the watercube, and the Olympic torch. I really looked forward to going to all of these venues. I can't imagine how all the athletes performed during the Summer Olympics a few years ago with the heat and humidity we felt there. And the air quality was very poor. They were amazing structures and I was so glad to have the opportunity to be there!

Where Michael Phelps got all those gold medals! I will never forget that.

I had to buy one of these kites for my kids after seeing this little girl having so much fun!

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Inside the birds nest
After the Olympic morning we headed to Dr. Tea for a tea party which is very popular in China. I enjoyed watching. Then we went to the old courtyard village, the hutongs, via ricksaw. We went throughout the city, visited a chinese family to see how they live, went to the old drum tower where they used to beat the drum every two hours to let people know the time.


We also got to end the day by visiting a Chinese Olympic athlete school where children go to live and then go home on the weekends. We saw 6-8 year olds learning gymnastics (swinging from the bars, jumping on the balance beam). They reminded me of Alliyah and I had such a hard time knowing these kids live away from home at such a young age. But to each his own.
We saw many young kids playing table tennis in a small tournament, and volleyball kids. This was a unique opportunity for all of us.