Not a leisurely stroll!

We began the morning by attending the Beijing International Christian Fellowship. It’s a service for ex-pats in Beijing. We had to show our passport to get in (although it was pretty obvious that we were foreigners according to our Chinese guide:)! Pastor Kerry sometimes mentions in a service or prayer that even as we gather for worship in MN Christians around the world have been up and praying for us. It was a very neat experience to be gathered in worship half way around the world and be able to pray for our church in Minneapolis long before they even gathered.

After church we went to a jade factory and a great lunch and then off to the Great Wall. The portion of the wall we visited was about 1 ¾ hours from our hotel. It was AMAZING for this history teacher to see it! However, I’m not sure what gave me the idea it would be a leisurely stroll—it was NOT! I’ve included a few pictures including one looking down from the tower we climbed to. If you notice in the picture looking down the line of green canopies are in the parking lot where we started. In addition to being much steeper than I expected the steps are also varying heights. By the time we climbed up and down my legs were shaking.

A few interesting facts about the wall:

• it stretches from the Pacific Ocean to the Gobi desert.
• when it was built 1/10 of the population in China worked to help build it.
• in order to get the stones to the building locations they made ice roads in the winter by carting water and then they slid the stones along.

Tomorrow morning we leave the hotel at 5:15 AM for our flight to Chongqing and sometime tomorrow we will meet Shiloh. I still can’t believe we are here.