Home
Journal
March 14 & 15
March 17
March 18
March 19
March 20
March 21
March 22
March 23
March 24 & 25
March 26
March 27
March 28
March 29
March 30
March 31
 

Our adventure started this morning with figuring out something for breakfast.  Forgoing the breakfast buffet we went for the giant croissants and pastries in the deli of the hotel.  Blake the carb king loved that!  He can now survive anything.  We did fine during the night, just the room was too, too warm.  I guess the heat was officially turned off yesterday in China, but we’re thinking that the hotel may have been excluded.
   
 

Rob Tucker from ZDL Books met us in the lobby and we were off  for the day!  Rob is a remarkable person that has raised his family here—he is from Michigan and has lived here in Beijing for 6 years and provided a great perspective on China.  Everyone has been so very gracious.  Rob’s hospitality and friendship is treasured.  We'll see him again in the states for the CBA in Denver this summer—so it’s one of those situations where someone joins your journey and you know it’s not the last time you'll see them!  How blessed we were to have him today to create a love for Levi's country and culture.  Not just  tour guide!  We will be traveling tomorrow with a driver who speaks no English.  Rob has set us up with a cell phone connection to him if needed so we're set.
   
  Cannot even begin to imagine driving here, not just because the signs are Chinese, but it’s just very different.  Although driving on the right side of the road felt like home.  People on bikes, on foot, on three wheeled bikes, taxi cars, taxi carts, and electric buses. Pedestrians do not have the right of way, but there’s so many you're kind of stopping traffic in en masse. 
 

   
 

Forgive me for ever bad mouthing people who travel abroad and find MacDonald’s to eat.  We not only ate at MacDonald’s, but Pizza Hut as well! We plan on KFC and DQ tomorrow.  After seeing the scorpions on skewers along with the grubs and some other brown bug—American fast food is exquisite cuisine for discriminating palates. To add to the scorpion visual, they were still moving . . . .  Obviously there are options and familiar foods from Chinese restaurants, but we are just cautious given the fact that we have over 2 weeks to go to remain healthy.
 
   
 

We visited one of the Xinhua bookstores today and went into Beijing’s largest mall.  The nearly all Chinese bookstore was very interesting and full of shoppers.  The cost of goods for a book is as much as 25% of the price, but the price is greatly reduced.  Educational books could use a little creativity ( the SOYN variety).  We purchased 3 tourists photo journal type paper back books for about $3 each.  Rapid growth in the Chinese economy is evident.  We anticipate quite a contrast between here and Fuzhou, Fujian.
 
   
  The Forbidden City—built in 1420 for the Emperor and Tiananmen Square were remarkable.  The number 10 is considered to reference God.  So everything in the Forbidden City was created or built in sets of 9’s and the palace has something like 999 ˝ rooms—close as you can get to being heaven and not be heaven.  The gates we walked through were not pearly, streets were not gold and the throne room, well it was in the restoration process in many areas.  The Chinese are very proud of their heritage and are rapidly preparing for the 2008 Olympic Games.   Tiananmen Square was a huge open paved expanse in front of the current government buildings as well as the ancient palace entrance gate.
 
   
 
   
 

Could not help but look at every boy’s or young man’s face and wonder about Levi.  He could be anyone of them here in China, but he won’t be.  He will be in the US.  Wondering what he will look like.  Just wondering if he will want to return to China in 20 years.  Just wondering.  “What you see is temporary, but what you don’t see is eternal”.

 

We're resting since it’s about 2 AM ET right now.  We will keep life simple and quiet until we hit the road for the Great Wall tomorrow morning.  Actually as I send this everyone is out on the beds.  I now understand how beneficial a couple of days "early" can be to get our clocks on a schedule.  PR's: our health, Levi's preparation, details for the trip, we will be staying at the Phoenix Hotel in Guangzhou now, not the White Swan, our travel coordinators Leila and Angela, Levi's nanny, wisdom, beneficial cultural experiences for all of us & especially Levi's big brothers, Blake & Ethan that a very special bond will be their's for the rest of their lives. 

 

Realizing we are more blessed than we could ever know- The Wall Family