Friday

Sorry for the delayed update. We have not found the internet to be very reliable in our room, so we feel just like we are at home, (haha), this morning we are trying down at the lobby. It is Saturday morning and we are waiting for our guide to take us out for todays adventures. Hard to believe that in just 24 hours from now we will be at the airport waiting to go so much closer to our Emma. Yesterday we had a jam packed day of walking, walking, walking, and walking some more. It was a beautiful day in Beijing, due to the winds the day before there was hardly any smog at all, so the view was mostly clear.

We started out the day enjoying a great breakfast at our hotel. It is a continental style meal, where you can order the standard omelet, have pastries, four different kinds of 'congee' which is porridge, or you can be adventurous and have all kinds of dinner items, pork, veggies, corn on the cob, etc. It reminds us of the Couer dAlene brunch in a way. It is quite nice and a great way to start the day.

Next we met our guide and driver and drove for an hour or so to the Great Wall. I am quite amazed at the driving here, for those of you who have been to Guatemala, it is similar to that. There don't appear to be any rules. We have been blessed with a driver who is excellent and he can blaze a trail like none I have ever seen. If you want by and there is no way...just go between the other cars. Seriously, make another lane. We feel very safe, despite the craziness. If people drove this way at home, there would be serious road rage, but it is just the way it is done. There is only occasional honking when an accident is imminent. We have seen no accidents.....yet!

We got to The Great Wall, and yes, sure enough it is built on a mountain side. Not for the faint hearted and not for someone with knee trouble. It was super windy but we ventured quite a ways up the mountain, until the oxygen was too thin to continue (joking of course, but we were tired) Even our guide had her tongue hanging out. There were hilarious signs along the way that said stuff like, "Coronary cerebral disease be aware", as in don't have a heart attack up here because no one is coming to take you down. :) We got tired enough and made our way down. The Wall is surely a marvel and we couldn't believe the amount of stone used to construct it. We could have spent all day and gone back today and still not seen all of it, it is just so huge. But, Summer our guide had plans for lunch for us so we left. Another hour of driving through the city that never ends. Beijing reminds me of Boise, all flat with mountains around. It is all brown here right now, like at home.

We went to lunch at the jade carving place. We were served standard Chinese cuisine, like what we eat at New Garden. It was tasty. Next a man named Eric, gave us a tour of the jade store and explained to us about the jade, how it was carved, and showed us several amazing pieces that were made there. One was a ship, eight feet long and five feet tall, for a mere $61,ooo dollars. We sure hope we can get through customs with it, as it will make a great embellishment in our water feature at home. Okay, not really. :) But it was amazing. I will have to share the pictures later. We got quite an education on a lot of symbolism in Chinese culture. Everything in that place 'meant' something to the Chinese people. The think having all these symbols in there possession will bring them peace, love, happiness, prosperity, etc etc...so sad to know they have it all wrong. They have many blessings here...but not because of the dragons and incense. So sad, burdens my heart and makes me wonder how the Christians here 'blend' in.

Next, we got into the van again with our trusty driver and weaved our way to The Summer Palace. Our guide, Summer, is a sweet girl from Inner Mongolia, and has only lived here for 5 years. While she is a helpful interpreter, she isn't really a tour guide. I am not convinced she knew anything about the Summer Palace, and I suspect everything she told us was what she was over-hearing from the other tour guides around us. So, the Summer Palace from what I understand, is the place that the Emperor and some of his favorite wives spent the summers (he had 3000 to choose from). It is an amazing maze of rooms, called his house, that skirt the perimeter of a beautiful lake, which was partially frozen. In the picture I posted, in the distance is a temple...which we made our way to. It was an amazing structure but again, so empty. We actually went into the temple itself and saw the god, a statue of a 24 armed woman...worshipped for the reason of blessing the people with children, which I found ironic. At this point, our guide paid her monetary homeage and bowed down three times to the god. I asked why we could not take pictures there and she said because you cannot have a picture of god. All in all, we hiked for miles to see it all. Can't wait to share more pictures with you all. The architecture is amazing. The whole complex was burned down by the French Military at one time.. but it was all rebuilt.

One interesting observation I made today was the absence of children. We only saw 6-8 children out at these sights today. The children we did see made me realize how close we are to having Emma by our side. Oh, I. can. not. wait.

We were exhausted by this time, our minds knew it was 4 pm...our bodies said it was the middle of the night. We took a quick nap back at the hotel and then ventures out for dinner. We ate at a place that reminded us of Eddy's at home. It was a dumpling restaurant...which could be my new favorite. They were yummy and I am glad we let Summer pick our restaurant, because it was in a place I would never have felt like I could stop. I am working on mastering my chop stick skills, not chapstick Matt! :) never dropped a thing on the floor yet!

All in all, it was a busy and exciting day. We are ready today to venture to the Forbidden City, which is neither a city nor forbidden anymore. Then we will visit the Olympic City. Looking forward to traditional Duck dinner tonight. That is it for now...gotta get ready to meet Summer. Love to all at home. We will try and make it to the lobby tonight again..to see if we can send more pictures and some text.

Blessings!

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