China! China! China! (You Tube)

Last month we had the opportunity to go with our Chinese friend, Shiyu, to her home country! It was a chance to spend time with her and meet her family. We met Shiyu when we first came to Japan and our friendship with her has grown very fast. It's one of those situations where it feels like you've always known each other. Shiyu is not a Christian, yet! She has been living in Japan for the past 3 years while she studies to get her PHD. God brought her to the Gateley's church in Kitakyushu about two years ago. She started taking English lessons with Paul Gateley and has been to church off and on since then. Shiyu has studied the Bible some and has heard the gospel through church services. Angie feels that God has specifically put them together as friends to continue the work that He has started in her heart!

When Shiyu invited us to go home with her to China, we jumped at the chance! What a great opportunity to reach out to her and her family! Since, returning from our trip Angie and Shiyu have been studying the Bible each week. It's an answer to our prayers! Please keep praying that Shiyu will continue studying with Angie and that she accepts the truth of God's word!

While we were in China, we did do some sightseeing! Shiyu wanted to show us the best parts of her home country! That means visiting the capital city, Beijing! When you visit Beijing...you must do these 4 things:

1. Visit Tianamen Square

2. Climb The Great Wall Of China (And they really DO mean CLIMB!)

3. Learn about and visit where the Emperor lived

4. Eat "Peking Duck" (For those of you who aren't History buffs...Peking is Beijing!)

We accomplished all of these things in the short time that we were there! It was wild and crazy, but what else would you expect from us!

Here's us at Tianamen Square! You guessed it! It's the square that you've probably seen on T.V along with a parade or two. The square is said to be the biggest in the world! It's surrounded by Gov. buildings, A Gate to the Forbidden City (Emperor's Palace), and the tomb that holds the remains of the first leader of the Communist China, General Mau( Pict. shown on building). We heard that when visiting TianamenSquare, you should fly a kite. So, that's just what we did! You can ask Nick how much he paid for the kite! (Chinese love to barter!)

The next thing that we did was CLIMB the Great Wall of China!
Climbing the Wall was actually something Nick and I had to do on our "Things To Do Before We Die" list! I guess we can mark that one off:) The Chinese say that after you've climbed the Wall then you are truly a hero. Well, I don't know about that. But, we certainly felt like heroes! The Wall does have steps that you can walk up.

But, the steps are so steep that sometimes you have to use your hands too! We only explored the Wall for 2 hours and that was enough for us! Angie's legs were tired and sore for the rest of the trip!

The pictures below show just how steep those steps were!

Next we ventured off to learn all about the different Emperor's in China. If your like us, we knew next to nothing about these guys before we visited China! China has more years of History than the U.S.A has been a country. It's a little hard to keep all the Emperior Dynasties straight. We just had to see where the Emperor lived during most of the year. His palace was called the Forbidden City. The City is surrounded by a HUGE wall that was meant to protect all of the buildings inside. The capacity of this place can hold up to 50,000 people at one time! However, I don't think that many people lived there at any one time. But, this wasn't enough space for the Emperor. So, there was also a summer palace that he would retreat to during the summer time. The Summer Palace (the bottom picture) is located next to a beautiful lake that would cause the temperature to be a lot cooler. They didn't have air conditioning back then!

AND NOW TIME FOR PEKING DUCK! Peking Duck is eaten like soft tacos w/ different goodies on the inside! Although eating Peking Duck was an interesting experience, it was only one of many interesting experiences that we had in China. Before we left to go on our trip a friend talked asked, "So what strange and exotic foods are you going to eat in China?" If you know Angie, most everything that isn't beef or chicken is exotic to her:) Needless to say, we had quite the selection of food. In fact we kept a list of all the things we ate!

Here are a few of the most interesting foods that we ate in Japan!
*tree ear, pig brain, pig intestine, cow stomach, cow tongue, turtle, and fish so fresh that they show it to you alive before they cook it*

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TPMwujmNoW4&feature=user

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zQsJO2X5zyo&feature=user

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tCKhG9sSVJY

More About China!

Not only did we see some of the main attractions in China, but we also saw a few other interesting things. One of which was a silk market. Did you know that China silk is made from real silk worms? It's kinda hard to believe isn't it?

1. They raise billions of silk worms and collect their cocoons.

2. Then they unwind the fine strands from the cocoons in order to make spools of silk thread.

3. The silk thread is stretched into thin sheets that are layered
one on top of another.

4. Some silk is directly put inside a comforter, similar to a down comforter. While other silk is made into slip covers, cloths, and bags.

Pretty cool, huh?

The next thing that we got the chance to see was a performance by Chinese Acrobats!

AND we can't leave out the Giant Panda Bears! There are only about 1800 Giant Panda Bears left in China! So the Chinese are trying their best to get them to breed in captivity. It's a very slow process. They have two huge research reservations for these. We were able to visit one and got some great pictures!

Amongst doing all of our tourist adventures, we did experience some daily life, like the public bathrooms. There are many differences between Japan and China! One difference are the

public bathrooms. Both countries have the same style of toilet. However, if you ever visit Japan you need to bring a hand towel because there are no paper towels in the bathroom....but there is toilet paper. If you ever visit China you need to bring toilet paper and some money. Bring money to buy toilet paper in the bathroom if you forget it AND you just might have to pay to use the toilet!

Another daily life experience we had was the transportation in China! They have all kinds of transportation that is considered "legal" to drive on the roads. From three wheelers...to electric bikes....to carts being pulled by men.....to any homemade contraption that could be put on wheels. You name it and it is probably "legal" to drive it in China!

We had many memorable adventures in China with our good friend Shiyu! The trip was hectic and at times uncomfortable. But, what a blessing that we got to experience yet another culture with a different world view than ours. Our God is truly diverse in ALL that He has created!

PS: If you want to see more "crazy" pictures of China, then you can Google- Only In China!