Day 2 - Beijing

9:30 p.m. Beijing Time.

Today we had the driver, Mr. Lieu, meet us at 9:00 a.m. for another eventful day in Beijing. Tony, our guide from yesterday, set the day up for us. It really is quite interesting to be in this country where there is a total language barrier, and be on THIS side of that barrier. Mr. Lieu knew no English, so when he would drop us off somewhere, Bill would just write down the time that he needed to pick us up again.

First stop: Beijing "Sport Street," a street lined with several stores containing sports clothing and shoes, most of which seemed like knock-offs of other brands, such as Nike and Adidas. But what do I know? This is how our day began..... Imagine if you will, the 5 of us emptying out of the van into a torrential downpour of rain. Fortunately, our driver loaned us umbrellas, a few of which worked, a couple of which went inside-out the moment they were opened. Puddles everywhere from the hard rain, some ankle deep. There we were, trudging along trying to fix our umbrellas, the only Americans in a sea of Chinese people. They were mostly plastered against the storefronts under the eaves to keep dry, watching us slosh by. I'm sure we were a sight. Before long, though, the force of the downpour did subside, and before our hour on Sport Street was up, we were able to put our umbrellas away. The really cool made-just-for-the-Olympics wrestling shoes that we were on a mission to find, we did not; a wet adventure, we did.

Next: The Temple of Heaven. This is a massive structure of amazing architecture where the Emperors of China came twice a year to pray to the gods of heaven for bountiful harvest. The photos of our time here speak better than these words, though. And speaking of photos, until we figure something else out, it seems like the best way to provide these is to just have you follow a link. We are having a bit of trouble getting them on the blog the way we want, and haven't had a great deal of time to spend on it. SO, follow the link for the photos of the day. Bill has placed great captions on them, so most of them "speak for themselves."

After the Temple of Heaven: lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Mr. Lieu went inside with us, and led us through a very loud and vibrant atmosphere, through a smoky haze and up the stairs and into a private room. It was pretty humorous watching Bill with his Chinese phrase book and that menu, Mr. Lieu looking over his shoulder, the two of them trying to figure out how to order lunch for us. Finally, they succeeded, and we were served a delicious chicken dish with rice and some noodles; then some not so delicious pork with strange-looking items in it that I decided not to partake of. There was also a huge plate of broccoli which we thought was to be beef with broccoli, but, oh, well. :-)

The final planned event of our day was a Hutong Tour, which was fun and quite interesting. We took rides in pedi-cabs on the ancient streets, then were shown life as it used to be in Beijing by the very animated tour guide, Lou. More on this later.

Bill is standing here to help me load the photos now, so I will close. Please know that we appreciate all your thoughts and prayers, and the comments you leave on this blog. While we are enjoying every experience here and trying to take it all in, we are counting down the days (just a bit over 2 more) until we have that baby in our arms. We are praying that God is preparing her for us, and us for her. And we know that He is.

Todays Photos - Click Here
(Hold cursor over text on photo for full description)