Beijing, China (a few photos)

Beijing, China

So it’s been a while since I have updated and I’m no longer in Beijing and I’m now in Xi’an. But this post will be about my time in Beijing. I was there from Monday the 7th till Friday the 18th.

I know most people will not care but Facebook, Twitter and all blogs are blocked in China. So I have to do some fancy stuff to actually post this. Anyway back to the stuff that is more interesting to most people.

I think a chronological review of what I have done would make the most sense.

The 7th we just got settled and rested and had Chinese dinner that night, the food was an experience.

The 8th we went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, for those who don’t know the Forbidden City was the home of the Emperor of China, it was built in 1421 and it was opened to the public in 1924. One interesting fact there are no trees inside the center of the Forbidden City because the Emperor was afraid of assassins hiding behind.

The 9th Lama Temple, Confucian Temple and a Tea House were the big events. The Lama temple had a 26 meter tall Buddha, craved from a single piece of wood. It was interesting at the Lama temple seeing the people at the Lama temple bowing and asking Buddha for help. I enjoyed the tranquility of the Confucian temple more; I wish we had more time. I would have liked to read, meditate and pray.

The 10th we went to the Summer Palace. It was built in the 12th century for the Empress to live in, surprisingly enough during the summer months. It has been destroyed and rebuilt several times. Two of the famous things inside the Summer palace are the Marble boat and the Long Corridor. The Long Corridor has over 10,000 painting and it is 728 meters long.

The 11th Temple of Heaven, Pearl Market, Peking Duck, and English Corner. First we went to the Temple of Heaven which was built in 1420, as a place that the emperor would go once a year to pray for good harvest. It was impressive to see but also sad to think that so many people were deceived, they even sacrificed humans there. At the Pearl Market we saw how they extract pearls from oysters and I didn’t buy anything there, it was all very pretty but outside of my budget. Yum, that evening we had Peking Duck one of the dishes that Beijing is most famous for, it was delicious. After supper we walked to apartment complex where we talked with Chinese to help them improve their English. We used the story of the Good Samaritan as our discussion topic.

The 12th The Great Wall! So where to start, the Great Wall is amazing! We went to one of the four sections near Beijing. Quick facts, its 4000 miles long, can be seen from space, construction started around 200BC and it was designed to keep out the Mongols. I climbed/hiked to the top of the area we visited. It was an amazing view of the nearby mountains. Inside one of the valleys we could see there was a lake, God’s creation is spectacular! I’m not sure what else to say the steps were steep and uneven at some points, it was a workout but I enjoyed the challenge. That evening I had another challenge… but it was unexpected. I was planning to meet our family friend Honghai for supper. I did meet him and have supper with him and his family but it was an adventure trying to meet. I was staying at Capital Normal University (CNU) and they have 8 campuses in Beijing and two of them are very close to each other. Anyway to make a long story short he was at the other campus and it took quite a while to figure that out. In the end I had to borrow a cell phone from a Chinese girl at CNU and with her help Honghai and I were able to meet. I had Peking duck again, which was as good as the first time. It was a good dinner, a good end to a good day.

The 13th, Sunday. We were up at 7:15, too early. We took a bus to a government approved Three Self Patriotic Church, the service was in Chinese but there were headphones for English speakers with the translation of the service. The church seemed pretty normal by my standards; there were a number of foreigners but I think most of the people there were Chinese nationals. I’m glad to see so many Chinese brothers and sisters. After the government church we went with friends of our group to their small worship service. It was very small, but encouraging. There were only three Chinese there that morning although sometimes they have more. We sang several songs, some were in Chinese and some were in both Chinese and English. I was a blessing for me to be able to worship with those of different nationalities. God is so good. I spent the afternoon as all Sunday afternoons should be spent, napping. That evening we went to see the Chinese acrobats. For those who have seen a show by Chinese acrobats before many of the acts would be familiar. All the acts were amazing, but the last act of the first half of the show was my favorite. There were two guys inside this cage/wheel/thing. They were each inside a circle and the two circles were connected. In the middle of the two circles there was a connection that they rotated around. It was very impressive.

The 14th we visited a Hutong, a traditional home of the Chinese in Beijing. It is a walled area with a courtyard with buildings built into the outer walls. We had supper at one of the Hutongs, it was really good, I enjoyed all the dishes that they served. That evening a group of us visited bar street, I hung out and enjoyed seeing what some of Beijing does in the evenings.

The 15th, Beijing Zoo, Silk Market, and Snack Street. The zoo was really similar to most any zoo, it had animals. The big exhibit was the Panda bears. I’m not sure if Pandas are China’s national animal or not but the Chinese love pandas. So after to the zoo we went to a silk manufacturing place. It was amazing, the thread from a single silk worm cocoon is nearly a mile long. I didn’t buy anything although I saw a very nice silk jacket; it was about $200 USD. After supper I went to the “silk market” which is a huge building with vendors who sell all kinds of stuff. I bought several souvenirs and gifts for family. Since my family is reading this I will only mention one item, I bought my brother a Colombia winter jacket, it’s nice. After the silk market closed at 9pm we rode to snack street. They have some strange foods for sale there. Snake, Squid, Scorpion, whole fish, and stuff that you have no idea what it is. I tried some squid.

The 16th. Fragrant Hill, they call it a hill… I’m of the opinion that it is closer to a mountain, and that the fragrance you smell is the BO of everyone who has just finished climbing it. The climb took over an hour, the route I took. After I made it to the top I found out that there were more direct routes… After that climb I didn’t feel up to doing anything in the evening.

The 17th. It was a free day. I finished my paper for CNU, and rested for most of the day. I did watch Star Trek: A Voyage Home with Jordan and Jill. In the evening I packed everything.

The 18th, Friday last day in Beijing. We shipped most of our gifts and other packages home in the morning, then we checked out of our rooms. After that we had nothing to do till 7pm when we had to be ready to get on the bus to go to the train station. So first I went to the internet café. I video chatted with my family and Meredeth. It was fun to talk to people from home. I then went for lunch, Jordan, Jill and I went to a place we had never been to before, even though it was just down the street from CNU. It was good, and the best thing was it had menus in English. I had pork and mushrooms on rice. After that the three of us went to Wu-Mart and bought some food and stuff. Then we bought some ice cream on the way out. We walked to the park nearby to enjoy the ice cream. After we finished the ice cream we tried out the exercise equipment, it was actually pretty fun, and it felt good. I met Caleb at the park and he was planning on visiting the Olympic district and going inside the Watercube and Birdsnest. I decided to go with him and Brett. It was amazing to see the inside of both structures, definitely worth the 80 Yuan.

I think that is all for now, it’s late here in China and I need sleep.

Next time, train ride to Xi’an, fun in the fountains, Terracotta warriors, and more.

Also what I miss most, my family and friends back home.

Prayer that the team would have good health some of the people are not feeling up to their best.

God Bless, Tim

Leaving

Tomorrow, the 5th of September I am going to board a plane to travel to China. The thought is slightly scary because at the same time I'm not worried, I'm absolutely sure that God has good plans and PAC rim is part of His plans for me.
Three things I want to do while I'm on PAC rim:
1. Spend more time with God, both in prayer and scriptures
2. I want to exercise and hopefully come back in better shape than I left in
3. I want keep a good journal of my experiences.
I covet prayer for all of these things.

So more mundane information.
The send off dinner was earlier tonight and my whole family drove over from Tulsa, plus our foreign exchange student came with. It was a good time with family, the food wasn't great but the ice cream afterward was good.
My suitcase is packed, it weights ~39lbs, which I'm happy about because it is less than 40lbs which was my goal.
Well the flight leaves tomorrow at 4pm and we leave the school a couple hours before that to get all checked in at the airport.

I think that is all for now, I'm going to hopefully get some sleep tonight