Full day in Beijing!

Hello all,

Well, as we are still suffering jet lag, and having had a busy day that started at 5 am (that's when we were up - couldn't sleep!), this post may not be too coherent. So please bear that in mind as you read...

We started our day touring the Summer Palace of the Emperor and Emperess for 1.5 hours this morning. It was a bit cold as we were only on the grounds, so we were outside the whole time. However, we got several beautiful pictures of the ornate architecture and learned a bit about the palace's history.

We found out that Beijing is quite large, and that it takes a long time to get anywhere, as we were on the bus for somewhat extended periods of time. However, it was quite nice, as we were quite tired and enjoyed the "breaks" and our guides, Rosa and Maggie gave us a lot of cultural and historical information about China while on the road. Maggie sang the Chinese national anthem for us, and then she sang the U.S. national anthem in Chinese for us. It was very cool. Dan and I can now tell you all about the Chinese flag and its symbolism...you'll have to quiz us when we return home!

We hit some shopping areas before lunch...visiting a jade factory and a pottery factory as well. You have to negotiate price on everything...fun for those who love to go bargain hunting, but a bit hard when language is difficult and you don't understand the money system! :)

After lunch we went to the Great Wall. It was beautiful and truly amazing. Despite my life-long and fairly severe fear of heights, we managed to get quite high. However, Dan did lose circulation in his hand for awhile - the one I was squeezing onto as we climbed!

After the Wall and some dinner, we are back at the hotel, ready for bed. It's just about time for you all to start waking up and start your Saturday, just as we are ending our day. I miss our boys terribly, but I am thankful we have the opportunity to learn about about our daughter's birth country. Tomorrow after attending the international church service (for foreigners only) and a few other stops, we get on another plane to fly to Guanxi province, so that we can meet Bethany Monday morning.

This woman is making an ornate vase. It's a very intricate, painstaking, and time consuming process. The interesting thing was that she had to work in coat and mittens while she did it. The heat wasn't on in the building. (Dan added this)



This woman was selling hot sweet potatoes right off of her rolling fire pit on the back of her bike. Some very innovative and customized bikes around these parts. (Dan added this)

One thing that struck me today is just how different our country is from this country...the freedom we enjoy is noticeably absent here. The entire mentality of the people here is so different from ours, I think especially because of 2 things: lack of independence because of government control, and the lack of faith in the One who created us in His image. I couldn't help but feel sad from time to time today as I saw and heard things that pointed to the absence of both of those things.

Well, not to ramble on any further, I will wrap this up. Thank you for checking in on us, and for your continued prayer for us as we continue to travel and get closer to the moment that we are united with Bethany.


Becky (and Dan)


Oh yeah - we learned today 2 things about Bethany: she is part of one of the minority nationalities in China, the Zhuang people (90% of China's population is Han), and she is from an area that speaks Cantonese - not Mandarin. So, all of those language books/cds we brought will not help us!! :)