A week in Beijing!

We were sent to Beijing for a week of training. They like larger on-boarding groups. Drew and I got to travel while they went to their respective centers since ours were a 3 hour flight away. Free trip to Beijing on Disney? Doing it up! We went to Tian'anmen Square one day before training, we walked around the Forbidden City, along the moat, we went super early because we had training at 1:30. We knew it wouldn't be enough time to really enjoy the Forbidden City so we saved that for Friday.

Next time, I think I'll want a tour guide. We saw neat things, but didn't know what any were. Also, that haze...is pollution not weather. Blech.
Outside the Forbidden City-

Well, that's all for today! Coming up will be inside the Forbidden City, the Great Wall and I ate street food for the first time and didn't die!

Chimelong Safari Park (pre-Beijing) 9.22

I haven't posted for some time, as my connection in Beijing was NOT fantastic. 
Before Beijing we went to the Chimelong Safari Park, we got to see pandas and koalas! It was pretty awesome. We also got asked for our first picture. He even found us later on in the day and asked for more pictures. Famous without needing to be famous! Haha. The Safari Park really was amazing, and exhausting, as it's MASSIVE. We couldn't figure out at first what made it a Safari Park as opposed to a zoo. They might be the same. HOWEVER, at this one you can actually pay to feed the giraffes! As in they take the food FROM YOUR HAND. Also, you can feed the elephants bananas, and meat for lions (that was more you throw it as far as you can to actually reach where they are.) We didn't do it but it was really neat to see. P.s. TONS of pictures, not a ton of blog. More to come.

This giraffe kept licking the tree...I don't know why

Sad Panda

Panda mama

2/3 and Mama Panda

2/3 of the Panda triplets born last year!

I thought to myself, "How weird it chose to lay down like that, over the edge." Then I realize the panda does NOT poop where he sleeps... Oops!

The big cat portion of the Safari Park was truly amazing. Among the Asian tigers, Golden tigers, White tigers, it had a Cub part. (For what I could decipher) They rescue all of these tigers from all over, ones that the mothers abandoned, ones that got crushed, or from mothers that never learned to breastfeed. They had one where the "cubs" were teenage-equivalent but they also had little bitty ones that they were nursing back to health and teaching the basics of being a cub. They were so cute, and some were so sad. There were so many there I can't imagine how much they dislike having to turn any down. It was quite the sight. 

Mama and baby (the baby is sleeping so you can barely see it)

Teen tigers (they were playing with the keeper guy that was in there with him)

They were so little they couldn't even walk!

The laying down one had a bum leg :(

So sleepy!

Rawr!

These two were also part of a trio with their mama.

She paced by the window the entire time they were playing

Gorgeous

We got to watch feeding time with these ones, they were making them "work" for it. Jump to posts, from posts, into water. It was really cool to watch. The white female was a boss. She was the only one who would catch it and walk away to eat it, the rest basically swallowed it whole so the others wouldn't try steal it. 

 Other animals were cute, too!

Black Swans

Pink Flamingos

Leeeeeeemurs!

Can you spot him?

Timon!

Teeny Monkey! Drew's hand for comparison!

Heheh they had toupes

Pygmy hippos! Mama and baby!

Red Panda, so cute!

 ALSO!!! FOOD!!!!

Our first attempt at doing it like they do. Family style dining. Our waitress couldn't keep her composure from giggling too much. We had about 4 different people wait on us. These both were delicious!

All we can decipher is they are called "clear noodles"... They are good, they are also much like tofu, in that they seem to take on the taste of whatever they were cooked in. The sauce was good, they are strange but not bad!

Aaaaand this is what happens when you grab a menu, point to an item (that has no picture, just Chinese characters) and say, "jigga" (which means "this" in Mandarin). I, mistakenly, assumed it was a wine list. Drew got soup and I got a deep fried egg. It was fantastic. 

We pretty much never know what we order, we point to pictures we think will taste good. This was reeeeeally good. Also, we decided half of the meat was tongue. So, I had tongue.
I also had stomach, but no pictures of that meal-- we were in Beijing and had one of the local girls order. I have decided I won't say no to much while here. So, I had stomach.