Beijing - Final day - village tour Wednesday February 18th

We were really looking forward to our village tour which had been planned as a village tour, lunch with a local family where we would make dumplings and perhaps see some local dancing - Ha!   On the way there, which was a significant drive from Beijing, Doyle told us that we were going to this village because it was a prosperous village - started to not sound like quite the "quaintness" that we were seeking.   As it turns out we felt we were in the middle of one big propaganda movement.   The "village" was actually more a model town - very nice, where there were multiple homes all in the exact same style, some very large and then sort of in rows and grids, differing models in different styles, probably according to people's status in the village.   We pulled up at a huge house - see photo (which is actually the house next door but looks the same) and entered the court yard where there was a poor dog in a cage barking its head off.    The family greeted us very warmly and we all squeezed around a small table in a room to have lunch (given the size of the house the dining room seemed small).   We were served course after course.   The very last photo of the food is what was left at the end of the meal and this was after we had our guide and driver take two of the dishes that none of us were eating.    Most everything was delicious and felt like real country food.    We left there and went to a museum of hte village - basically a whole place dedicated to how this village had become so wealthy, models of the village before and after etc.   It was quite interesting after we got over our disappointment from what we had expected.    Basically people in the village had become involved in construction, I guess at the start of the building boom in China and they have built just hundreds of huge sky rises, there was one whole case of model buildings they have done that have won prizes.  Additionally, they are involved in some water transport effort to get water to drier areas.     You will see photos of people in front of their old homes and then their new homes - it's quite impressive.    The best thing about the whole place was that it was an enclosed place where the kids all just ran and ran and played.   The lady giving the tour probably thought we were horribly disrepectful letting the kids run wild but we were happy to let them run about where it was relatively safe.    After that we went to the greenhouses - there are about 50 of them but we toured the "one for the public".  I think we would all love such a green house - the variety of things growing and the layout of the greenhouse was just stunning.    It was also lovely and warm - the other building had been really cold.   We drove back to Beijing for our last night.   I think several people napped on the return.   Adam, Drew and Ben went to a Kung Fu show and David, Laura Beth and I took the kids to the playground at the hotel.    We had a great time although it was very cold.  It was wonderful to see the kids playing together and Indigo, Maya Mei and Eliana loved piling up on the curly slide.   We also met a Chinese man with his 18 month old son (Laura Beth had met the mother before).    He and his wife adopted their son domestically so that was very interesting as we have not met (or at least talked to) any Chinese people who have adopted.   Apparently in China, the couple has to be over 40 and cannot have any children.  He told us they waited two years for their son who is a gorgeous healthy boy from Jiangxi - Indigo's province.    That evening we ate stuff we had in the apartment and got all our packing done as we had a 6:30 a.m. departure on Thursday.   See photos from Wednesday:   http://www.flickr.com/photos/7322989@N05/sets/72157623482856116/