Last day in Beijing

"Gimme back that fillet-a-fish,......."
























The Great Wall

The Great Wall again

The Empress' Summer Palace

The marble boat at the Summer Palace

Today was a marathon! First came the Great Wall of China. You're driving along past many older homes and industrial sections of town then all of the sudden, these MAMMOTH sized mountains appear! We parked and began our ascent up one of the passes on the Wall. STEEP is all I have to say! The steps themselves were uneven from centuries of wear and tear, unequal in height, and very narrow in places. It made for some tricky manuvering. The wall was begun in the 700 B.C. era and connected around the 200 B.C. era. It was built to keep the enemy Mongolians out of China. It was amazing to actually walk upon a structure that dated back over 2000 years!

The next stop was a factory/restuarant. Here, the factory cranked out VERY nice peices of painted copper vases and such and was a pretty nice restuarant. Check out the pictures of lunch. Over here it is common for the heads of the fish and chicken to be kept on even after cooking the food. I kept waiting for this catfish to lift its head and sing, "Give me back that fillet o' fish, give me that fish..."

Last stop was the Summer Palace, which is even more expansive than the Forbidden City. Absolutely beautiful! Again, countless painted structures and fantastic trees, some over 300 years old!

Tomorrow we have our "Gotcha Day"! We finally meet Julianne (Ting Ting) and have her in our arms! All of the waiting and planning has come down to less than 24 hours!!

The Water Cube and Bird's Nest

McDonald's - a little bit of home

Tian'anmem Square

Mr. South tries out for the acrobat show. That spear was sharp against my neck!

Today we visited Tien'anmen Square, a very important and historic gathering place in Beijing. This place was the site of a massive pro-democracy protest in China back in 1989. Ask Mr. Ridener about it, sit back, and hear the tale...

From the Square, we went across the street to The Forbidden City (which isn't forbidden anymore). To say it was incredible would be an understatement. The place was ENORMOUS. Originally built with 9999 rooms, (the number 9 is very lucky in China) some rooms have been since destroyed (down to 7000 or so). Here is where the Emperor of China would stay along with certain high-ranking officials. The buildings kept going on and on. Mrs. South was a bit of a celebrity! People wanted to get a picture taken with her. Her Blond hair is a curiosity over here due to all of the jet black hair of the Chinese.

In the evening, we were taken to the Olympic village to see the Bird's Nest stadium and the "Water Cube" were Michael Phelps won his 8 gold medals. Later on, we watched a show given by a troop of Chinese acrobats. As you can see by the picture above, I did audition for the show by suspending myself in mid-air with a sharp spear pointed at my neck. I didn't get the part so I guess they didn't see my natural talent.

Traffic in China makes your blood pressure sky-rocket! It seems as if there is a complete disregard of signals and right-of way. A steady barrage of beeping horns. Somehow it all seems to flow as cars come within inches of each other, bicycles, and pedestrians. Amazing...

Off to the Great Wall tomorrow.!

We're in Beijing

The flight over was smooth (for the most part) and long!! (only took 13 hours). Flying over the North Pole was cool. I said HI to Rudolf for you! What things struck me most about the Beijing are the shear number of people in a small space. The population here is VERY dense. To house all of those people requires an enormous amount of apartment buildings and shacks.
Tomorrow we go to see the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and a Chinese acrobat show.
BTW, we shopped for food today at the local "Wonderful" store. Quite the experience!

We're in Beijing

In the air

Squatty Potty
Flying over the arctic and near the North Pole

Squid anyone???

We're in the airport....

Saying goodbye to the girls was very tough even though we tried to stay strong. They'll have a blast getting spoiled at Grandma and Grandpa's.
Going through security was smooth. You unload your pockets, take off coats AND shoes, and place carry-on baggage onto a conveyor belt where they scan everything for suspicious items. You then walk into a glass booth, stand there and get little blasts of air blown on you (checking for explosive items on your body).
Well, we head to Chicago here in an hour then leave for Beijing (16 LONG hours)!

Meet Liang Ruo Ting (Julianne)!!

It's getting CLOSE!

Just a few more days left before we leave! All of the waiting will soon be over. We're scrambling to get everything packed, all of the paper work order and our plans finalized. Leah and Natalie will be spending much of the time at Grandma and Grandpa's house as well as a night or two at the baby sitter's house and at their friends Helen, JoJo, and Stella's house. We'll miss them terribly but we know they'll have fun and get spoiled.
Our students are in the VERY capable hands of Mr. Reidener and Mrs. Rowan. We couldn't be happier about their taking over for us! We can rest easier knowing that our classes will be well taken care of. Thanks to both of them!
Speaking of rest, that will end soon. The travel time to China, 16 hours, will be rough enough and then on top of that, China is 12 hours ahead of us which means we could potentially be awake for more than 24 hours straight! Kiss sleep goodbye!