Well the morning started out a little scary for us. Madelin had a hard night - she has a pretty bad cough and is congested so it is hard for her to sleep. She kept telling me how hot she was - which she was really sweaty but had no fever. I ended up getting up at 5:00am to get ready and then all of a sudden I heard her crying - I run into the room and she was completely soaking wet - her hair was dripping with sweat and she was like a rag doll. We tried to get her to drink as much water as possible but she just was limp and could not even hold up her head. We were very concerned as she sat/laid on the couch as her eyes kept rolling back in her head. Greg ran to get Uncle Nelson our guide. He came to the room and said we were going to go to the hospital. Greg and I are panicked as we run around the hotel collecting what we need to go to the hospital. All I kept thinking is prepare yourself because I have had a few friends that have taken their kids to the Chinese Hospital and I have heard it is very scary - nothing like what we are used to.
We gather all our stuff and scope Madelin up and start heading downstairs. In the elevator Nelson says he has decided he wants to try and get her to eat before going to the hospital. At first I was a bit irritated because I have never seen my daughter this way and I was so scared - it really seemed like something terrible was wrong. So we head into the dinning room - where we are the center of attention because I am carrying this limp child in with her ams, leg and head hanging down - not to mention she is soaking wet. Nelson says to me I think her blood sugar is low!!! We must get sugar into her right now. He gave her a big bowl of congree (rice porridge) and started emptying sugar packets in it. Then filled a glass of water and filled it with sugar - we started to spoon feed her these two things first while Nelson went to fetch more sugar. He brought back to the table taste with tons of jam, a danish covered in frosting, orange juice and watermelon. After spoon feeding her the congee and drinking some orange juice she started grabbing food herself and shoving it into her month. Over just a few minutes her color started to come back and then she started to sit up on her own and the strangest part the sweat was all of a sudden just gone. She was back!!! It was so scary - we have never had a blood sugar issue before. But after emailing home to a few friends they all emailed me back saying these things can happen during travel. Yikes!!!!
Madelin and I were going to stay at the hotel but she insisted that she go touring with the rest of the group. So into the van we go. First stop Tian'anmen Square. This week is a holiday in China - which means all the tourist sights are jam packed with people. We wish that we could explain how many people were at each of these sites. We tried to take pictures to show you but I dont think a picture can even show what we experienced this day. It was so crowded it was very hard to take decent pictures due to the crowds. There we beautiful flowers everywhere some left over from the Olympics and others for National Day - China's Holiday. The space is masive and truly a site that everyone should see. The crowds were so big that Greg had to carry Madelin on his shoulders for long periods of time because she was getting trampled. It really was a bit scary at times - we were just in this sea of people - moving along just hoping that at some point you could get out.
Then off to the Forbidden City - again this site is truly amazing - the size of it is truly mind boggling. It takes several hours to walk thru the grounds. We took about two hours our guide said if you wanted to see everything it could take two full days. There is so much history here it is hard to keep all the stories straight. The courtyards are breathtaking and the architecture of the sturctures are amazing. We saw the emperor's living quarters, garden, library, courtyard for events, eating area, thrown - the list goes on and on.
The other thing here that makes my head spin is that everything has a meaning. Turtles mean long life, cranes we think are prosperity, lions are a symbol of power. All the buildings have ceramic animals on the roof line to protect the buildings against fires and the number of animals varied depending upon the importance of the building. Only the emperor's buildings could have nine animals. So we spent all day counting the number of animals on each building. The stories and the endless meanings just go on and on and on. One thing we have learned is that we really need to study more of China's history so we can pass this down to Madelin. Her knowing her heritage is so important and we want to be able to share this with her.
After hours of walking we headed back to the hotel for a Chinese style lunch and then of course Madelin was off to the pool for a couple of hours.
The evenings are free so we can do what we want. We have been ordering our meals in and then heading to bed about 9:00pm. Of course we are still waking up at 3am ready to go for the day.
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