Bird's Nest in Beijing

While we were in Beijing with Mark and Mindy, we drove by the Olympic stadium, nicknamed the Bird's Nest. Our guide stopped by the side of the road so we could get out and take some pictures. Our guide told us that the original plans for the stadium called for it to be a dome, with a roof. But as the construction expenses began adding up, they decided to make it an open air stadium to cut the costs a little.
This funny looking building, which I'm guessing is designed to mimic the Olympic torch, is just opposite the Bird's Nest. Maybe we'll see it on TV during the Olympic coverage.

Chinese "Hacky Sack" at the Temple of Heaven

We call these things Chinese hacky sacks... not sure what they are really called, but they are used much the same way as a hacky sack. They are a small bundle of colored feathes standing upright in a stack of metal rings, with a flexible plastic base. The rings sort of clink together when the toy is kicked and when it lands. We first discovered them on our adoption trip and brought a couple home for the kids to try. They were being sold in the Temple of Heaven park last week very inexpensively, like two for 5 RMB, which is about 65 cents. The kids bought them and had fun with them throughout the day. Here they are playing at the Circular Alter area. Somehow it didn't seem irreverent since they were a Chinese toy, and sold inside the temple park. Our guide, John, couldn't resist putting on a little show for the kids, demonstrating his superior skill with this little bunch of feathers and rings!

Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven in Beijing is in an enormous walled park, and was built for the purpose of an annual procession led by the Ming and Qing emporers to perform rites and make sacrifices to promote the next year's crops and to gain favor for the empire.


A tree-lined walk inside the grounds of the Temple of Heaven.
We all enjoyed walking (and running!) around inside this beautiful complex of traditional Chinese architecture. Our crew in front of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests.

Always the ornately carved and painted ceilings in traditional Chinese buildings.


Imperial Vault of Heaven... built to store ceremonial stone tablets. One of these had the name of the god (was it the one true God?) they sacrificed to on it, others had the names of the emporers.

3 Stooges on the Square

When Scott and I were in Tian'anmen Square in December 2005 with our adoption group, we thought it was the coldest weather we had ever experienced. Those of you who were with us can attest to this! The wind was absolutely bone chilling. Many in the group were rushing to buy "Beijing 2008" Olympic logo hats from hawkers in the square to make it through our tour without losing their ears to frostbite.

Well, our experience last week wasn't quite so cold, but it was a definite weather shift from the prior beautiful, balmy day we had on the Great Wall. It was blowing cold rain, which was not happy for my two girls who were trying to tip toe through the puddles in their Crocs. We ended up buying the same "Beijing 2008" Olympic logo hats again, along with umbrellas and gloves, from the roaming vendors on the square so that we would be able to make it through the Forbidden City. All except for Seth, who bought a Chinese police winter hat that was about 3 sizes too big for him. It makes for a comical picture... thanks, Aunt Mindy, for catching these expressions!

On the Great Wall

The section of the Great Wall that we visited on this trip is the same one we partially climbed on our short stop in Beijing on our adoption trip. The weather was much balmier than the December day we were here in 2005, but aside from the flowering trees, the views were the same. Next trip to Beijing, we'll have to go to a different section of the Wall!

Climbing up the steep stairs to the top of a watchtower. Always climbing higher... when will we reach the top?!


Enjoying the view from the top of the tenth watch tower!

We found this group having a picnic and playing cards on one of the watchtowers!
Heading down from a watch tower.

Climbing the Great Big Wall

1700 steps up are a lot for anyone, especially when the steps are quite uneven, some shallow and others 18 inches high. But when you are Gwen's size, that many steps could be impossible to conquer.

That's what we all faced last week on our visit to the Juyongguan section of the the Great Wall outside of Beijing last week. This section has ten towers, and it takes climbing 1700 steps to reach the tenth one. We all decided to go for it, and amazingly, Gwen kept up pretty well. She did a fair amount of this crawl-type climbing.
We also tried this method for a while, which was slower, but not too taxing for me.
She kept a grin on her face!
Still crawling up! Dad had mercy on Gwen on the way down, and she got a ride on his shoulders a lot of the way.

That night before bed, Gwen's prayer included this line, "Thank you, God, that Jesus help us climb up the Great Big Wall." The way my legs were shaking by the time we made it to the bottom, I am very thankful that Jesus helped us all make it safely up and down!

Ming Tombs

Thirteen of the sixteen emporers of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) are buried in this valley north of Beijing. We visited one of the of the three tomb sites that has been restored. Lots of traditional Chinese architecture, mountain views, and blue sky.




This tree is trimmed so that the branches resemble dragon claws. In China everything seems to be about the dragons.

He's really not unhappy in this picture, he just things he looks cool with this expression! I love the ornately painted ceiling!

On the Overnight Train

We had an adventure getting to Beijing Wednesday evening... actually a pretty tame adventure, as we were sleeping most of the time, but still a fun experience. Scott declared in the morning that if he didn't take this overnight ride again for ten years it would be fine with him! So, the beds weren't like home, but we did each have our own bunk with sheets, two pillows and a nice comforter. The mattress was just a bit too firm, just the way the Chinese like it! We left at 7:40 in the evening, and woke up about thirty minutes before the train pulled into the station in Beijing a little after 7 a.m. on Thursday morning.

Mark, Mindy, Caleb and Seth shared a cabin.
Gwen's pretty happy about her top bunk perch!
Madelyn demonstrating the little fold-down seats in the aisle outside the cabins.
Breakfast on the train before it arrives in Beijing.We stepped out of the train station into a bright, sunny Beijing morning! I thought the station was a pretty building.

Late Friday... Early Saturday

I've got a bit of catching up to do... we've been in Beijing with Mark and Mindy for the last couple of days, just returning tonight. And now it's 12:45 a.m., so I won't really be doing my catching up now. We took lots of pictures, though, between Mindy's camera and mine, so look for more coming soon!

In the mean time, if you haven't checked out Mindy's blog recently, click on the Photo Dilettante link in my side bar for just a sampling of the many China pictures Mindy has taken since they arrived last Saturday.

Morning Dancing in Ji-an Park

We spent nearly two hours this morning enjoying the beautiful weather and people watching in Ji-an Park. I first fell in love with this downtown park a year ago when we were visiting Shanghai for the first time. It is full of people in the morning doing all sorts of interesting exercises, as well as playing cards, airing their pet birds, and walking their babies. Mindy took all kinds of great pictures in the park, and I will be borrowing some of them for this post!

Here the girls watch some dancing... ... but it wasn't long until they joined right in!


Soon they had a little crowd of onlookers, which Gwen seemed oblivious to but Madelyn loved!