Our two and a half hour delay due to fog in Dallas kept us in Wichita until 7:30. Having a four hour layover in Dallas ended up being a blessing! Now hoping the luggage will be on the plane with us!

Above the clouds... sun shining, wind calm, smooth sailing. Ahhhh.

We’re on our way!!!

Dallas terminal waiting for the long haul overnight! Afyer a little wait we will be ready to roll!

Gorgeous tile mosaic at Dallas gate 33 Terminal D.

The only time we’re across the ocean is that little strip between Alaska and the USSR!

How much did you say business class was?! \240:-)

It’s actually light outside! (The windows are darkened.)

Itty bitty living spaces.

How I got a little sleep - my private cocoon! :-)

The hoodie really helped! And the neck pillow - ahhhh - because the seats don’t recline very far in economy, leaving the head free to bobble. Not good forcimfort!!!! So this little trick really helped.

Some of the bags from Chicago still have Cjicago rain on them! Murica!

Ordering system at McDonald’s but no thank you! It was packed tho!

Now THIS is the one!

Love. Seeing Jessie again - what a great \240Christmas gift.

Old school steps into the runway and the shuttle bus to the airport terminal.

Taxi drivers have official ID’s or they’re not legit. We ended up showing him how to get all our luggage into his itty bitty car. He wanted us to get a second taxi... but... it... could... be... done! He’s just never had to deal with so much luggage! Ha ha. :-)

G

Heading down the elevator from our hotel. No one here speaks English because it’s a local hotel but everyone is nice and friendly. Note the verbal cues in the elevator and the view from the 9th floor. Beneath the hotel floors is a large shopping center. They’re celebrating Christmas like all the stores back home - because Christmas is good for retail, even in a China.

Hot Pot dive that’s Jessie’s favorite. Won me over! Hit all my hot pot spots and I didn’t even know I had any!

Getting it cooking right at your plate, etc, Pot!

Choose what you want to cook in your pot from the conveyor: mushrooms, even coagulated duck bloodcubes, cabbages, several seaweeds, and in and in the list goes, x all with either hot and spicy base or bone broth base, and then enjoy!!

Mall food court:

A little market in the mall:

It’s amazing how many things are considered delicacies here that end up straight in the trash Back home. Wow!

Decorations in Rock City Mall in Likun area Qingdao.

Rockin the emoji world baby!

Emoji family.

One of the two centers Jessie teaches at.

Some of Jessie’s students!

Mall food includes a shop with every conceivable part of the duck that is considered edible. Note the full head and bill above left.

Times Square?

Gorgeous to see at night.

Gorgeous lighting o buildings in the shopping areas.

Evening street life is full of hustle and bustle. One thing that genuinely surprised me was the absence of constant honking as I’ve experienced in so many other countries. So far, at least in QIngdao, drivers are very respectful of pedestrians and reserved with their horns. :-)

Then off to another hot pot restaurant for a birthday celebration with some of her coworkers:

They decorated the restaurant and went all out to make it special. So very sweet.

One spicy tank and one bone broth because some in the group were ready for Hot and some were not! :-) then they add the food. This restaurant had servers help by adding the ingredients and timing the cooking.

This time goose long intestine, new exotic varieties of mushrooms and fish skin were added to meats and veggies. Everything was good and we stayed well over two hours and a half together until the Americans were just too tired to stay awake much longer!!!

The dragon fruit is AMAZINGLY sweet- and much like kiwi - all dressed up for a beach party.

Then after bringing the cake out after the meal they sang again! I thought they’d just bring the cake but they went all out again! Customer service supreme. Wow!!! Very special.

I’m telling you, this customer service belongs in the textbooks!!

Cut the cake!!

What a wonderful evening with wonderful friends. It’s really a small, small world.

After our work was done we too a taxi to meet jessie after work and had a great vegetarian meal at a hole in the wall diner near her school. It blew a away and reinforced what we were learning about food in China: hole in the wall restaurants got it going on!!!

I hope this is what we see, because THIS next photo is what we have in the city: SMOG!!! and very unhealthy conditions. (There are a LOT of smokers smoking in the middle of all this too.)

To me as a non smoker, it’s like being in a room filled with smoke. (I keep wanting to cough and get something out of my lungs.).

But first a little lunch: prawn and veggies.

And a stop off at Jessie’s apartment. Her entrance is under the red banner just above the bushes.

Street scene video.

There’s a Mountain on the horizon... have to squint through the smog bit it’s there!

We have begun our adventure at Lao Shan, with Mah, our host, welcoming us with a fresh cup of green tea. The informal tea ceremony was so peaceful - a great first connecting point with our host family.

Also special was that the tea was brewed with fresh mountain spring water from Lao Shan.

Mah and Candy! Mah is a chemist in Qingdao.

Momma and Jess heading into town for groceries. Backpack? Check!

Our local grocery. We picked up broccoli, cauliflower, green peppers, two kinds of mushrooms, garlic, peppers, beans, leeks, spinach, onion, lamb, beef and bottled water - a lot of smiles too!

This is the market owner.

Gensing and blue eggs.

The little shack on the left is our grocer’s shop. He was super cool and eager to help. Very gentle and kind man. Made his own sausage and tofu and fermented foods.

Seeing the Chinese flag waving in the winter wind. A strong, resilient people with great patience. This culture measures time in thousands of years.

Groceries put away and fire in the fireplace, it’s time for more tea. Ahhhhh. Nice way to relax before cooking supper. :-)

Funny side note, as we entered various stores in town, they didn’t know Jessie could understand them when they spoke things like “there’s a foreigner!” “We have a foreigner!” :-). They then loved \240that Jessie nreracted with them and thought she was fantastic! she was a celebrity! and we really had a lot of fun.

Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins! Ahhhh, a birthday breakfast favorite for the Christmas birthday girl!

Now if we can figure out this oven? It’s so different! Why does it turn off on its own? Why does it decrease its heat? Argh! How different can it be? Turns out - quite different.

Mother and daughter.

Little video:

Suitcase living!

Morning hugs.

Tea.

Muffins.

And an afternoon walk after a lazy celebration of Christmas together.

A typical sight as street cleaners work incessantly everywhere we go.

Baby it’s cold outside!

A trail into town.

Garden plots everywhere they can be. This one in what would be a flood drainage ditch in most US cities.

The Chinese workhorse machine. These are everywhere.

Roadside market stalls, shops on lower levels and living above.

Jessie translating a city marker.

Bus stop directory. We take busses most places.

Roadside video:

Home again for supper: fresh cauliflower, beans, apples and ground sesame butter from the local market.

And a warm fire. So thankful and grateful for this opportunity and all the adventures and blessings it has brought so far and still to come.

Ended the day with “A Christmas Story” and lots of laughs. Merry Christmas.

A glorious morning bus route with coast on one side and mountain on the other.

Lao ”Shan” means Loa “Mountain,” and Lao Shan green tea is renowned. Here is a snapshot of the kind of tea farming we found all along the route - even up into the highest niches of the mountain. This greenhouse type cultivation was only in the lowlands where large areas of flat space were available.

Join us on the bus in this and upcoming videos:

By the way, the people on the bus were all pretty cool about freaking out that there were “foreigners” on the bus. It makes me reflect on how in the U.S. you can’t tell a foreigner by just looking at someone.

Now here is another video up on the mountains a bit further:

We are now at the entrance to the mountain area. This is winter so the vine is not leafing, but gotta love the rock and vine look.

Connection with Jessie’s friend and she was our help getting tickets and getting in. We were the first ones there, it was Monday, it was early and it was COLD. Good timing for being about the only ones in the park for the first couple hours! And it never was crowded while we were there. The high temperature was 42 degrees F. When this picture was taken it was 28 degrees with a brisk breeze.

Actually, this was nothing real fancy for China. Pretty “usual” average quality work. Still cool!

There’s Kathy!!! Yay! What a sweetie. Ticket to the park in hand and ready to go!

Over the first ridge here is our view: The HUGE statue is Lao Tzu, the legendary author of Tao Te Ching and core founder of Taoism, the philosophy of “The Way.”

Both above and below the statue are temples and sacred areas where monks used to live and teach and work in the thousands. A very sacred place and very historical place for one of the major philosophies of the east.

A well developed path with lots of ups.... and then lots of downs. Pretty nice with the stone work, eh? Loved going slow and soaking it in with the surroundings.

With great reverence and all on our own to soak it in.

Ancient pathways...

Video to help make it come alive for you a little bit more:

Over the ridge and near the base of the mountain and right next to the ocean is Taiqing Temple. Our first stop on the Tao Mountain.

Local species shown in the stone work.

Corner of the gate to the temple complex.

With our back to the temple complex and facing the Yellow Sea, what we also call the “ocean.”

Ahhhh... something so magnetic about this spot. Karla would not be denied. She headed straight for the water!

Jessie pausing to take it in.

Enjoy a video:

Ocean breeze... breathe deep, reflect.

Back up into the temple complex.

Time for you to stop for a moment and enjoy a few moments with the wind and sun in this video:

A first, when we saw KFC staring us in the face across from the temple we laughed, then thought of just looking, then thought it would be a good place to get warm and then we ended up going in there for the “sacred chicken” of Lao Mountian. :-) Prices were about the same as in the U.S. but it was all localized recipes, which we thought was cool. Nuggets and coffee warmed us up and we got on our way, weirdly surprised by how much that meal nurtured us after so much local food and flavors. We don’t even eat KFC in the U.S!!!!! :-0

Upstairs was a great place with a view of the water and mountain. Warming up turned into some really cool discussions and just soaking up the view more. Was a highlight. Who’d thunk it?! :-)

Ahhh. Taoism. ;-)

KFC marketing in China. Get your super bulky typically Asian phone covers!

O.K. Back to the temple...

Just inside the temple, and other visitors finally arriving, we see people starting to burn incense and give offerings in the different chapels. Monks are around, having just finished their morning prayers.

Here’s a video:

Picturesque.

Just inside the open gate behind us a monk walking with breakfast stopped to offer us some of his fresh hot and steaming sweet potato. Jessie interacted with him about his faith and the rhythm of his life in the temple... he didn’t really get what she was asking and she didn’t really get what he was saying, but it was a neat interaction and the hot sweet potato was yummy.

Flowering trees that were common in the temple area.

What disciples wore when they came to work and study in the ancient temple complex on the mountain. No KFC for them!

Awwww.

In this video: Stone work on the path way and quiet courtyard. Very cool.

O.K. Lets do this!

Video of the wind catching the prayer plaques.

Visitors buy the particular plaque for the particular prayer they want and after making an offering to the patron saint of that particular blessing, it can be hung up at the temple.

Video of the environment at the top of the statue base.

At the base of the Lao Tzu statue. The sun felt great and the wind was cold!

Karla outlines our path over the ridge and into the temple area by the sea in this video.

The great Taoist saint.

Video greeting from us:

Getting on the bus to the cable car up the mountain. It can be hiked, but even with the cable car there was enough hiking involved so we opted for the beautiful view and ease of the cable car.

Video along the bus route up to the cable car platform:

Video of the cable car that took us near the top of the tallest peak in China alongside the ocean:

Ending the day with Jessie reading the nativity stories from the Bible.

Then we said goodbye to our warm and comfy Christmas home away from home at Lao Shun and returned to the hotel in Qingdao.

In between was a sequence of errands - to Jessie’s apartment to do laundry, repack, have lunch, etc. and while laundry was air drying, like all laundry is here, head off to meet Jessie’s friends Nancy and Harry for a fun evening movie, dinner, some shopping for Jessie - and then move back to the hotel we started in.

On our way to the movie theater we were tempted by:

But it would be too big to carry into the movie.

Snack machine at the theater - had seaweed peanuts or shrimp sesame seeds. We got both! and “bubble” tea, and coffee to drink. The “bubbles” are tapioca pearls you chew while drinking - a drink invented in Taipei, Taiwan. Wide straws required!

The popcorn they had was sweetened like carmel corn and we skipped it and the sodas. So bubble green tea and bubble coffee and peanut seaweed and sesame crab snacks it was!

Some movies that were showing In Chinese:.

Coco and Paddington Bear 2 were also showing and were in English with Chinese subtitles. We chose Coco!

Some pre movie ads / no previews:

The movie was a heartwarming story celebrating family. Then off to dinner! We went to one of Harry’s favorites! Every street is busy, busy, busy.

Karla spotted an Iowa license plate as a decoration! Wow! It was the very first thing you saw when you walked in the door of the restaurant. This must be a really down home place!

Harry and Nancy ordering. You order by writing it down yourself. It wasn’t much like we do in Iowa, but they had some pork, so let’s do this! Oh, and green tea! Always green tea, and we LOVE it!

Hmmm... some of this. And this! And this.... I think Nancy’s eyes were much bigger than her stomach!!

Whenever each plate gets done they bring it out. You never know what your appetizer or main plate or final taste will end up being.

Some of the items: Chicken hearts, lamb ribs, fish skin and veggies, cauliflower, dehydrated okra... typical Chinese restaurant stuff we get in the U.S. - right?!

Dig in!

Then 2” if steaming clams with a couple of “very special” large praying mantis shrimp and regular shrimp thrown in. Didn’t even know mantis shrimp was a thing! They looked downright viscous! Like something from the nemesis from the Monster, Inc. movie.

Here’s a video for ya:

Green tea and eggplant:

And the food kept coming! We had so much food collecting that a second table had to be added to hold it all! NANCY!!!!!!

Here’s a video:

Wow! I think of my mom telling us to eat our food because there were starving people in China! This was a new twist.

Then off to shopping for some food for snacking and apartment items for Jessie. The whole huge store was underneath a city park! Down we go!

And we’re off!

But wait! Here’s a snack option - and we haven’t even found the almonds yet - dried GRUBS. Hmmmm. Buy them by the scoop!

Wanna close up? Here you go. Zoom in!

Wanna see me eat one? Here’s a video. Do I?

Ha ha.

It was a fun, amazing evening and another great day of adventure in China with some great people.

From start to finish.

But before you go: feast your eyes on dried squid:

Dried fish:

Yep, don’t waste any part - it’s all there but the guts.

Salad bar. Only the garlic was recognizable. It looked pickled. Oh! And kimchi, gotta love me some kimchi!

Dried mushrooms by the ton! And this was just ONE bin.

Is sea cucumber a thing? Are they moving? Really?

Yep. Good people, good times. :-) Its been a great trip and more to come. \240🇨🇳 🇺🇸

Bopping into a supermarket- and I mean super market - we could show you some more things we found interesting.

Delicious Dragon Fruit:

Amazing and ripe Mangos:

Fresh Hazelnuts:

Mushrooms mushrooms mushrooms:

Super loooong Green Beans:

Such great looking veggies:

Little purple and big orange sweet potato - and there were several others:

Veggies:

Meats: fresh cut and unwrapped, to be ready to select and make cuts from right there and now. Want more fat? Less fat? Strips? Cubes? Etc:

Here’s a video of the processed meats section:

Back to MUSHROOMS! There’s a great variety:

Mushrooms

Mushrooms

Mushrooms

Off to the Subway:

Standing room only.

Pizza Hut pizza. This is “New Orleans” style - or so they say:

Can you zoom in and find the shrimp? Seafood pizza.

It was COLD out there! Let’s try Starbucks now that we’re in a eat corporate American chain food day! More green tea? Starbucks style.

Hot and cold green tea Starbucks:

Nice to take the layers off a little and warm up!

One music shop had lots of these!!! \240What is it James???

Jessie caught this one - a wild and exotic species of human in China:

Well let’s keep the roll going: McDonalds!!! Here’s a bacon double cheeseburger. Our favorite but the bacon was not really bacon. Not at all cured like we are all used to.

A double burger double brat burger: the mustard was the winner here. The meat was just weird. Had a very different flavor.

Taro \240root pie! Bland - the flaky sweet crust was the winner.

No picture of the true test - the Big Mac. I was so sad to say it was pathetic. Wrong wrong wrong! Taiwan had it right two years ago. Nope. Not China.

So the verdict: Pizza Hut and Starbucks got it right with the ethnic local additions but Mickey D’s got it wrong wrong wrong.

Not likely to be any more corporate chain food - we did it - our American obligation - now we can move back to exploring Chinese foods again.

City street: everyone on their phones.

Well it was a light day, And we are so bummed that we totally forgot to get a group picture of the international teachers group at Pizza Hut. So bummed. Sorry guys!!!!

Food here is SO different and weird to us that were probably posting too much food! It IS a HUGE extreme difference between cultures and so remarkably different.

For example, this is our little lunch today from a local “cafeteria” in a short Video tour of our trays.

What do you think? Very different??? \240

Street scenes:

Very well behaved dogs are all we see. Never a spoiled and unruly brat dog. Interesting.

Poster advertising the Qingdao Zoo:

Raccoons!!!!! \240 Ha ha. \240Rate and exotic creatures indeed. All relative, eh?

And the wild squirrel!! ;-0

Will leave you all with this interaction with Jessie this morning.

Looking at the wet wipes: “what are these for?” “For use in the toilet,” we say.

“Really? She wonders?”

We are surprised by her surprise, then she asks ”what are these for then?”pointing to the air pollution masks. ”The bad air” I say, ”especially in Beijing!”

”Really? she replies.You thinK it will be that bad? ”Oh yeah”! Much worse than here,” I respond, really surprised by her question.

Then we realize we had the two, laying next to each other switched in the conversation and we ”needed” the masks because we expected the toilets, especially in Beijing,to \240smell so bad we couldn’t take it. \240

She thought we brought \240air pollution masks that filter 99% for the toilets! Ha ha. Too funny! :-0

Getting take out supper to eat lunch m the room. This is the chef and the salad bar adding the dressing for us. \240:-) \240 No, really! \240

Then we chose our meat.

Only had mugs and chopsticks to eat out of!

Dessert: apple and sesame butter alongside the cup of salad.

Ahhh, our feet are up! Tired feet. Sweet dreams!

Actually, no.

We got up before dawn and took the subway all the way down to the southern tip of Qingdao to the railway station to catch this baby:

See the window behind the train’s number? That turned out to be our seats.

Being in China in winter and at the crack of dawn has its perks - no crowd. :-)

Very roomy. And the whole huge window to enjoy crossing half of Shangdong Province west and a quarter again south. There were only 6 seats in our compartment which was very nice and quiet. The train also ran very quiet and smooth. Nice way to travel.

A great way to see the country...

It wasn’t too photo friendly however, because a heavy fog was present the whole day, but we DID see the countryside and get a better feel of the country.

Let’s show you the funny quirky names of the things in the snack bag:

These garlic roasted peas.... \240are called “feeling happy.” We all need more of these! \240Ha. \240

We never ate this, but it’s got a great name: Roughage! We all need more of that too! \240;-)

Then there was good intentions meat. Well it’s the thought that counts!

My fall back was the hazelnuts we brought along. Had a great system of using the arm rest for a nut cracker until the other man in the car quit talking so loud that the sound of cracking nuts was a little loud. Then too was the time my nut went flying out of the arm rest. We (Timothy) put the nuts away.

But it was good while it lasted! \240

So the hyper fast flash fried veggies took over. Oh yeah baby!

And were just getting started!

Time lapse video:

And another:

Made it. Qufu - the hometown of China’s most world renowned and influential philosopher: Confucius.

Our hotel - just a block away from the temple built to honor him, situated on the site of his home and his school. The temple complex was started 500 years BC! - just two years after his death. He’s also buried just a stone throw away.

No, this is not the temple - it’s our hotel. :-) we are In the center of the old city.

I think we can handle this. Yup.

Our view. A small old world meets new world city street.

The welcome note from our host staff that came with 2 apples and 2 cookies. \240We sent a picture of it to Jessie to see what it said. She said the handwriting was hard to read. She had Nancy help her interpret it for us. It says that they were happy we are here and that they hope we find them helpful and that the apples and cookies were their gift to us.

The man, the myth. 551-479 BC!

Maybe you’ve heard of some of his sayings:

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”

“It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.”

And the silver rule 500 years before Christ: “Do not do to others what you don’t want done to you.”

Then too, “He who chops his own wood gets warm twice.” Well maybe it was just the farmer I was working for, but he prefaced it with, “Confucious say!” :-)

One block from our hotel. We ate lunch at a little place to the right and loved it. Weird and wonderful and exotic. Don’t venture to China expecting to eat the Chinese buffet in your home town!!!!

A little video of Karla going rogue!

Very typical transport here and many are electric. After lunch we just started wandering around.

Check out this short clip of a shop window that bakes cakes!

Well what do we have here? Must be the temple entrance:

Beautiful Stone bridge.

You’ll notice that our photos focus on the ancient, the natural and the inspiring, so hope you enjoy. Ancient bridge:

Ancient wood:

Ancient stones that have had many cross over them, including many emperors.

If these trees could speak!

Glazed tiles. Love the colors, even though they’re very faded.

On the way back to the hotel, we saw these pictures of Mao and his buddies.

Back at the hotel and we had a supper of snacks and had a time to relax.

Karla had a chance to do some work on her cross stitch.

Chinese breakfast buffet had TONS of veggies and fermented foods, bread items, like dumplings... and in such a cool place. Hotel Queli, Qufu.

Short walk past our hotel room to the bender alley...

Past the yet to be opened booths...

To the Confucius temple opening - A daily ritual celebrating the opening of knowledge for all Chinese people.

The dancers carry the wisdom to the people...

Then onto the bus to the actual family cemetary.and grave, including his direct descendants and closest disciples.

It’s not just “fog.” It’s pollution.

One nice thing about politics here is there is no arguing or name calling. Everything is polite and supportive and everyone agrees that everything is going great.

The front gate to the tomb, but in ancient China, the more important the person the light longer the walkway to the tomb.

This guy was the bomb dot com in ancient China!

Looking back to the first gate:

Still walking...

Really quiet and beautiful \240blue tailed birds with grey coats and black heads:

The entrance to the tomb area:

Stone guardians: \240

I’m still learning about this tree stump and it’s significance...

Confucius’ tomb! 2,000 plus years later:

The marker behind the marker:

Neat carving in a small room built beside the tomb where Early disciples kept watch:

Then making our way back...

Street sweepers tools of the trade:

Cat outside the restaurant we were heading to:

Busy place for locals!

Rest up before leaving... and enjoy the room:

Wife East Station where we catch the train back to Qingdao:

Our train!

Quiet, smooth, fast!

A

Some 170 souls with perhaps 20 men. The large letters above the cross say EMMANUEL.

It was packed out. :-)

Hymn book. very few bible could be seen. The singing was nice!

Everything in Chinese. But you can hear it in this video:

Video:

Getting Jessie off to work we head off to her school. The people were very nice and kind.

Leaving Jessie, we headed to breakfast / lunch!

Video:

Very friendly people. Fun to try communicating with using gestures!

Video:

Video:

Forgot to ask for a bowl, so used the tea cups in our hotel room! Looks like garbage, I know, I know! :-)

Dessert!

Then, during Jessie’s break for lunch we bought a desk and chair! AND moved it to her apartment! :-0

Dah dah!!! \240

A great place to eat, study and work...

Then after work, we met Jessie for our anniversary supper! Happy 28th honey!!

Appetizer: roasted chestnuts. How cool is that?!

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at our nose... \240:-)

Love...

Peace...

Food! \240;-)

From our table:

We may have been among the few celebrating the New Year here, but we did anyway! Happy New Year everyone!! And Happy Anioversary to us.

Taxi time! All fit in one little taxi! Driver didn’t believe it was possible.

45 minutes or so and we’re at our Hutong (old neighborhood) hotel. Formerly the home of a government official - 200 years ago.

Here’s our room key! What!? Gotta leave this one at the front desk when we leave!!! No carrying this baby around town. No sir.

Check it out: see the blue curtain over the door? That’s our home for three nights. The thick curtain is for winter.

Here’s a quick video:

Old school China style. Love it!!!!

Wow.

Off to a quick supper...

Then the Beijing Acrobats!

The rest are some video clips. We didn’t record it all - just some snippets.

Five bikes at once:

It’s been a great day. Everything went very very smoothly. What a blessing.

The hard boiled eggs are soaked in tea and the meats are cured in Chinese spices for a totally different flavor- very exotic. Dragon fruit, pastries..: veggies soaked in mystery spices... China all the way - even when the attempt is made to accommodate European and American tastes. Just doesn’t translate. But hey! It’s just a part of the journey. :-) \240Loving the journey.

Here’s a video if you’d like to see the breakfast bar:

The. we’re off to the Wall at dawn!

From the hotel:

Down a waking city street:

Into a coach for 1.5 Hut drive:

At the base! Mutianyu section!!

So excited to walk some epic history.

Let’s go!

All bundled up and carrying essentials:

Gonna take the cable car up, not the three hour hike. Yep. Nice view, fast, good choice! Spend our morning enjoying the Wall!!!

From the observation deck at the top. Morning has broken!

Immensity.

Ready to explore!

Of course, it’s the people you’re on the journey with that make the journey!

Going into the First guard tower:

And peeking out. Imagine guards in many a cold watch walking these walls 640 years ago.

Early cannon that would have been used:

Amazing!!! We’re in the Great Wall of China- \240and we’re the first ones here!!! OMG. Woo hoo!

If stones could talk...

Well hello!

And hello!

And you too! :-)

Epic.

And looking from the same place the other way:

On and on and on...

Do you see anyone in the photo?

Anyone!?

There they are!

Ha ha. Here’s a video version:

Scary thinking about dropping the camera! Really freaked me out.

Up up up and down down down.

Love this picture:

Oh hey!

Two more pics from both sides of the picture:

Momma!

Layers and pouches, and finally warmed up enough to unzip!

Here’s the section we covered: to Tower 11 and Back, then down to Tower 4.

Jessie and dad toboggan the long way down! Yippee!!!

Back in Beijing, this is our walking route from the bus stop to Tianinman Square:

Toilet break:

Back on the street:

Taking an alley food market: is fun!

If you find the handicap toilet sign you get the luxury of a rare sit version of the trusty “squatter.” We keep our eyes open for the handicap version! ;-)

Almost there!

China has a new imperial government in a long history of imperial governments: Mao and the communist imperial state is a kinder gentler face of power.

Backed up by who controls this:

Under those flags:

Ready for a warm, slow and quiet tea break!

And then supper: Peking Duck! A classic Beijing dish.

Here’s how you do it ma’am:

Hmmm - interesting...

The instructions to the taxi driver to get back to the hotel:

It’s been an incredibly AMAZING DAY! Wow! Pinching ourselves.

E

Playing around while waiting:

Front of hotel and a couple of the superb staff. They helped us out with everything and were so pleasant and professional.

Looks like a local dive, eh!? And it is! Loved it. Staying in a 200 year old home with modern amenities. Very cool.

Hu Tong is the ancient word for “neighborhood.”

Walking into the stunning grandeur of the Imperial Palace also called the “Forbidden City:”

There will be a lot of videos to help capture the massive and almost overwhelming grandeur. Here’s the first:

This is all the First outer courtyard:

Every view is a sweeping step back in time, to one of the great architectural and technological periods of human history. China 1400.

Lion is a symbol of strength and dignity. Lions are second only to dragons in the imagery, (but a faaaar second.)

Only the emperor could walk on the white marble Walk way:

Gates at every new level of entry:

Details, details, details...

Whit marble- emperor only:

Dragon is the creator of the world:

The more little creatures on the roof line, the more important the building:

Weights and measures were set for the empire to provide consistently and reliability. This is the standard - for dry grain. Another is for liquid.

Details...

Dragon waterspouts and more:

Ancient skyline:

First throne in a series of thrones:

Lion playing with young lion pup- symbolizes strength and compassion:

Again, grand scale and details:

Another throne room:

Ancient stone:

Huge Perfect mirrors! And there are two in this room - one on each side.

Empresses throne:

Hand rail knob outside the princesses throne room:

A local artist we watched making an gift for us to bring home: a name stamp for James!

Here he is working on it:

Royal garden: my favorite part of the palace:

Da dah!

Corkscrew tree training makes a crazy cool looking branch system!

Details that must have vibrated with color:

Two trees combined into one!

What cool living spaces!

A warm break in the shop!!!

On the north end of the palace complex is a huge hill made from earth removed to make the moat. It’s a park for the Forbidden city:

Going up!

And up!

And at the top it’s the center of the city.

Panorama of the palace: the worlds largest:

Taking it in:

Buddha figure at the top of the hill. Offerings were actively being made.

Crazy cool trees with evergreen needles and deciduous bark!

What’s all around China: lines everywhere.

Lunch break! Better late than never. And momma wanted dumplings. This places specially.

Reflecting Jessie bummed that the movie starts showing in China the day after we leave!!!! Ha ha - too bad for us! Would have been fun!!!

Drum and bell towesr used to keep time for the city. Drum tower:

Bell tower.

Ewwww!

Up up up!

OMG!

Once rung - from the outside - with the dragon post:

Drum tower:

Up up up!

One of 25 original ancient drums:

Replicas:

Drumming with just a quarter of the original number:

Back down:

Duck for supper.

Ahhhhhh. Last night in China!

Sweet dreams!

Now inside the ticket gate and boom! How’s this for a front door? The rest of the huge complex gor

Now inside the ticket gate and boom! How’s this for a front door? The rest of the huge complex goes up over the mountain and back down and around a huge little lake.

A short video version:

Better than a step master at the Y!

Jessie calls them the “aunties” - but groups of women meet all over China for morning dancing. Of course Jessie realllly wanted to jump In and join them but we only had a short time so crack went the whip! Ha ha.

A set of roof top close ups:

And a Buddhist influence:

Stepp mg stones over the mountain and through an incredibly inspiring winding wild “garden.”

Checking the map:

Bloom where you are planted!

Ancient echoes whisper through the cold air...

And open up to this interesting Chapel for worship of the Buddha. See how the rough stone leads into bam!

The theme is the eternal, infinite Buddha.

These corkscrew trees! They are not naturally this way, they have to be trimmed to grow like this.

Dragon boat:

In Interesting story: the queen had money but it was earmarked to build a modern navy. However, \240the only boat she built was this unsinkable chunk of stone on her pretty little Lakeside. All the money earmarked for the Navy went to her Summer Palace. Well, at least you can say the new Chinese navy was “Unsinkable”

Pretty stained glass tho! Needless to say it was the beginning of the end.

Entry to higher level servant quarters?

Queens throne room:

Banzai tree - wish they told us how old it was!!!

First line - passports.

Get luggage.

Second line - customs.

Mom thought this was about the length of those ancient staircases she kept having to climb in China. :-)

This one was easier!

Waiting at the gate for Wichita! Woo hoo!

Looks like Merica!

She speaks English! Ha ha! Does a soul good to hear it’s heart language.

On board for the last \240of six flights all total! \240

Dallas - see you later!

Coming my into the gate in Wichita:

Loving greeters!

Super GREAT trip of a lifetime - and... always super good to be home.

Super helpers!

Lovely carriage...

Familiar places...

Ahhhh. Home sweet home 🇺🇸

Izzy greeted (smelling all bathed and clean!), bags brought in, stove started, feelin GREAT!

We will unpack and start laundry in the morning! ❤️

Thanks to everyone for all your prayer! 😇