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05 March 2008

Beijing

Chinese saying: It is destiny for everyone to be together.

And so, here we are in China!

We have been busy, from sunrise to sunset. The last couple of days have been spent in Beijing. We have seen all the highlights of Beijing:
--the Temple of Heaven, where the emperor would pray for the harvest (hmm... we call that "church," right Joetta? :-) )
-- the Ming Tombs, where we saw amazing examples of artifacts from the Ming dynasty
-- The Great Wall, STEEP, LONG, one of those "I really can hardly believe that I'm standing here right now" moments
-- the Summer Palace (seen in the photo above), where the emperors would vacation
-- the Forbidden City- though only a small fraction of the 9999 rooms...
--Tian'anmen Square- with no absolutely no comment from our guide on the scene that enters all of our minds when thinking of the site

We've shopped at:
-- a Jade Factory
-- a Cloisonne Factory
-- a Pearl Market
-- street vendors (though only a couple of the many that have approached us!)

We've eaten:
--Chinese food and more Chinese food, including Peking roast duck

We've been diagnosed by:
-- TCM- a professor of Traditional Chinese Medicine (my kidney is not in yinyang and taking two herbal supplements for $163 American dollars would have helped...)

Highlights:
--surviving trip over! so very long!
--meeting the Chinese folks
--James playing with older man at park outside Temple of Heaven
--Keilah and James interacting with others, both the Chinese we meet and others on the tour
--driving by Olympic venues, still under construction
--walking the Wall
--lunch in family home

The internet connection here is iffy, at best. I can receive email but not send it. grrrr. Right now I can't download any other photos. I'll figure out some sort of slide show when we are back home.

Tomorrow we are off to Shanghai and surrounding areas, including Suzhou and Hangzhou.

Blessings!

7 comments:

sperlonga said...

Absolutely fantastic! Thanks so much for the update!!!

C and J said...

How wonderful to hear from you and learn what activites you are enjoying! It just sounds splendid! Everything is fine here, although 3 not-so-little girls really miss you! We will look forward to your next posting. Keep having fun in your wandering!
XOXOXO, Mom

Julie Brooks said...

So happy to see you made it safely over there! The picture is fantastic! WOW about walking the wall! I'm sure you are in total awe over there and I hope you enjoy the rest of your visit. Excited to see all the pictures when you return.

Valerie said...

Wow, that already sounds like a trip for all of you to remember forever! Looking forward to hearing more about it and seeing more pictures.

Hillari said...

Oh how excited I was to see that you have updated your blog!!! Wow! What a great picture of you, K., and J. and how lucky are they to get to have this experience at such a young age. The deep freeze continues around here..still so cold for March! Can't wait to hear the details and see the pictures when you return.

C and J said...

It's cool that you went on the Great Wall of China.
Love, Sarah

C and J said...

Have a great time in the rest of China.Love,Lydia.