Update

Just a quick post before we head out to Ethan's province this morning. Another exciting but exhausting day here yesterday. We are certainly getting our money's worth out of the tours. Our guide keeps us going from early in the morning until late in the evening. Finally getting used to the time change...was able to stay awake until 7:30 last night and slept until 3:30. Not too bad for our 3rd night here. The big tour yesterday was the great wall. Talk about breathtaking. The U.S. just has nothing to compare with the history of China. Even with so much being destroyed during the cultural revolution, it's still amazing to have structures over 2000 years old. It took 1 million people 14 years to build the great wall. All by hand. Stretches 6000 miles across China by some estimates. I'll post pictures later, but they still do not do it justice. It was 20 degrees outside but we quickly worked up a sweat climbing. The steps are all different heights..some 2 feet steep, some 4 inches...this was by design to frustrate any enemies who would try to climb it. Pretty frustrating for us too! Chris made it higher than I did, but I enjoyed just hanging out and taking pictures of the people and scenery. I didn't realize how famous I was until some Iranian men stopped me and each wanted their picture taken with me. I guess it is a big deal for them to meet an American. In their broken English they kept saying, "Iran and America...we are friends!" Very funny! Beijing is very international, both with visitors and many of the Chinese here in the business district speak English. Had our first experience with the poverty here while exiting the Forbidden City the other day. So many women with babies begging for money from the rich Americans. In spite of being warned by our guide to ignore them, my tender-hearted husband shoved some yuan in one of their hands. He was subsequently mobbed by women and babies. I was a little nervous for him for a minute! They all got something. Gotta love Chris. Today we fly to Zhangzhou and then just wait around for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we receive Ethan. I hope he likes us!