Commit everything you do to the lord. Trust him, and he will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.
(Psalms 37:5, 6 NLT)
TIANANMEN SQUARE
It was rainy this morning, and our guide said the weather kept the big crowds away. We would not have known that! It seemed amazingly busy to us! This is the biggest city square in the world! Interesting...we asked about the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 and our guide said that she did not know a lot about it, that it was not publicized here very much.
Brad was very intrigued by all the surveillance cameras in the square. They were everywhere like this. We had to go through security to get out into the square.
THE FORBIDDEN CITY
This was the home of many emperors in China's history. It is over 600 years old! Amazing - no nails were used in the construction of any of the buildings. It is all fitted wood. The place is huge. It took us 2 1/2 hours to walk through it - from the south gate to the north gate. The back portion was the private residence and gardens of the emperor. Very beautiful!
This is one of the buildings that had the original paint on it.
Helen, our guide, sitting with Jedidiah, who was quite a trooper all day!
We made a quick stop at Mr. Lee's Noodles before heading to our next stop.
Jedidiah's bowl of noodles...I think we refilled the bowl 3 times for him!
This is an old world part of Beijing. The area is preserved to show historical Beijing. We loved this experience...seeing how some Chinese people live (we got to go in one of the resident's homes) and roaming the streets on a rickshaw...pretty amazing! Most of the houses were built before sewer lines were put into the city, so almost all the homes in this area do not have indoor plumbing. There are shared public restrooms. Despite this, it is still some of the highest priced real-estate in Beijing. Houses sell for $36,000 per square meter!
At the end, we got to go up in the drum tower. You may remember these drummers from the opening ceremonies at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. These drummers are located in a drum tower that was ~250 feet up on incredibly steep stairs. We got a rooftop view of the Hutong neighborhood from up there.
Jedidiah is, of course, too young to remember going to these places today, but we are so glad we are able to explore more of his homeland with him. He will get to see himself in the pictures as he gets older and we will be able to tell him we did these things together. Priceless!
Tomorrow we have a very special day planned. In the morning, we are visiting the foster home Jedidiah lived in most of his life. We are VERY excited for that visit! And then from there, we head to the Great Wall!
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