Hello from China

Addie and I have been in Beijing for 3 days. The flight over was painfully long. We arrived at our hotel and crashed hard. Yesterday we toured with a guide Tiennamen Square and the Forbidden Palace. What did I take away from this day? 1) Beijing is scorching hot in August, 2)being white we were asked several times for people to take their picture with us. 3) people here still revere Chairman Mao and make a pilgrimage here and wait in a line that you have never seen, all day, to see Chairman Mao’s body lying in state. 4) there are cameras EVERYWHERE. 5)China has soooooo many people and everything is shoulder to shoulder crowded...and sweaty hot. 6)How to use a squatte potty successfully (we read a tutorial online before we went out, thank goodness! Still, you can never really be prepared for that experience.)We were still heavily jet lagged yesterday, so we cut tour short, came back to hotel and showered and tried to stay awake! We slept heavily and awoke free from jet lag today, and today we went to the Great Wall. Addie turned 22 today, and visiting the Great Wall will be hard to beat in the future, as far as birthdays go! First we rode a ski-lift up to the top, it was soooo far off the ground, it was magical. It smelled so so fresh and good and clean. It was stunning there, and you just keep saying to yourself, “I am standing on the Great Wall of China!”, it was unreal. And there were poisonous giant (!) millipedes all over it. And so many beautiful butterflies. To get back down they had this great toboggan ride, it goes on forever, it was so fun! We are so overwhelmed by how beautiful it is here, and how ancient it is. Tomorrow we leave early for our flight to Lanzhou. 3 more sleeps before Elsie is with us! I cannot comprehend that, I can say it with words, but I just cannot believe we are this close. Thank you for your prayers, they carry us through the rough bits!