Hello all from China,

Thursday, August 29/30
We left Los Angeles on time at 1:40am Wednesday, the 29th and arrived in Beijing at 5am on Thursday morning (we lost a day) after 12.5 hrs flying time. Ron and John, his Chinese friend, met us after we cleared customs...no issues there. Ron and Dalanda lives about an hour from the airport. We arrived and climbed the 5 floors to their apartment. They rent this apartment from their friend John. This is a very nice 4-bedroom place and Dalanda has decorated it very good. We unpacked, rested a little and then Dalanda fixed us a nice breakfast.

We left around 10am and headed out to do a little sight-seeing, using taxi and train. We stopped at a hotel and found a Starbucks and then walked around the did a little window shopping. We next found a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant and had lunch.....VERY GOOD! Ron has been able to pick up enough of the language to get around very good.....using taxis, subway and buses. We jumped in a taxi and head to downtown Beijing. We were able to see the changes to downtown from when we were here in 1985. Back then, the only cars on the road was government cars and taxis, the rest of the transportation was bikes and buses. Now, they have as much traffic problems of any other major city in the world. Also, there is much more high-rise buildings and construction. They are also preparing for the Olympics next year and you see a lot of sprucing and cleaning up. The walked around Tienanmen Square (a large square where one million people could assemble). And then, we headed across the blvd. to see the Forbidden city. This area is huge....approximately 1 million square meters which, if my calculations are close, is somewhere around 600 acres. The Emperors built them a place of living and refuge with moats, gardens, living quarters, big courtyards, etc....and even his throne room. We walked through most of it...it is very commercialized with a lot of hawkers selling things. We tried to be inside the buildings as it was so hot outside. One of the things that was interesting was the watch and clock area. This was a display of the clocks which was built by the Emperor's master clock makers....It was very impressive. After walking through the Forbidden City for several hours, we caught a taxi (it took a lot more walking to catch one) and head back toward home.

We arrived home and stowed our stuff and headed out to eat. Another great place.....the garlic broccoli, Peking duck and other great dishes. This food is better than the best Chinese place at home. It tastes fresher. Then, Ron and Dalanda treated us to a foot and leg massage with a back massage thrown in. It was wonderful......about one hour and fifteen minutes of relaxing massage. Ron didn't get to participate as he got a haircut...but they massaged his head and shoulders. After we were finished (our feet and legs were feeling pretty good), we headed home to end the first day...remember, we arrived at 5am and we had a full day. We had a little time to just sit and talk about Ron and Dalanda's time in China and the "challenges" they face day-to-day. Then to bed around 10pm.

Friday, August 31
We had a good night's sleep.....but waking up a early....Barbara at 4am and I at 5pm. We was going to have another full day. Ron and Dalanda decided to show a few of the sights before in got involved with the orphanage or some of his "meetings". This morning, we left at 10am and headed to the Great Wall. John's brother-in-law, Mordecai, drove us to a place about an hour and a half away...it was a chance to see the country side. Joining us was a couple of ladies that one of them, Marie Brown, Ron had known for some time, meeting her when he first came last year. The other lady, Debbie, was a friend of Marie and both had just arrived a day before we arrived. As a side note...Marie Brown worked with T. L. Osborne for several years and knew Barbara's sister, Diana and Byrl very well......That is something to travel more than halfway around the world and meet someone that knows some of your family.

This section of the Great Wall was a tourist place that had several places to view the wall with different physical challenges to "walk" the wall. We went to an area where you take a cable car ride up to a part of the wall and then we walked a section. Ron and I walked a little further than the ladies. There are a lot of climbing and descending as the wall follows the contour of the mountain terrain. There were a lot of people out walking the wall, including local and foreigners. After a couple of hours on the wall, we headed back but not before getting our picture taken riding a camel. After our exercise, we headed back to town and stopped at a very nice restaurant and had a late lunch....steamed veggies, duck, beef, chicken and you name it, we probably had it. It was a GREAT.....I thought we might lose a little here because we would not eat as much but the food is so good, we will probably put on a couple of pounds. After lunch, we rolled out of the restaurant and headed to a mega-shopping area to pick up a few things and we parted with Debbie and Marie as they were going back to their hotel. They will leave tomorrow for the country. We picked up a some first run DVDs at the store and headed home. We had eaten so much at our late lunch, we just snacked, watched Evan Almighty and got to bed around 11pm.

That is all for now.....later....

DAD and MOM
Jerry & Barbara