Hi Everyone --

Sorry about the missed days of letters. It was fun to get it done one day at a time. Our hotels after Beijing didn't have Internet and computers. So here is the rest of our trip!

On Tuesday morning, we were up at 5 a.m. to get ready to go to the airport and catch our flight to Xian. It was a 2 hour flight from Beijing to Xian. We arrived at 10 a.m. and our new guide found us and got us in the car ready to sight see. We went right to the Terra Cotta soldier site. This was a huge "town" built for tourists and all the people coming to see this amazing sight. 2,200 years ago Qin Shi Huangdi conquered 6 other parts of China and unified them in language, money, government, etc. He had a huge tomb built for himself (which they haven't excavated yet), and the terra cotta soldiers. It was found by a farmer in the 1970's as they were digging a well. All the soldiers are life size and made of clay. Each is different, like they were carved to resemble real people. Unfortunately, they were broken when they were found and archaeologists have spent all this time putting them back together piece by piece. There are over 6,000 soldiers, and they have restored over 1,500. Only one was found intact. The Chinese people call this the 8th wonder of the world. Luckily, we can check that off our list as well.

That night we went to a dinner theatre. They kept bringing us dumplings in all kinds of curious shapes. They were beautiful, tasty, pieces of art. The show was nice too -- Chinese dancing and music. We were pretty tired, so we went to bed early and slept hard. Our hotel was in the center of town, but we asked for a quiet room.

Wednesday we went to a number of different places. We went to an archaeology site of an old village that they estimate to be 6,000 years old. I learned in my Sunday school class that Adam and Eve were here about 6,000 years ago. I dont' know what to say, but it was interesting. We went to a jade factory to learn about the qualities and kinds of jade. We went to a pottery factory to see how they make all the tourist stuff. We went to a museum about this very old area of Xian. We climbed up the Xian city wall and looked over the city. It wasn't like the Great Wall, but it was interesting. We went to a Muslim mosque and the Muslim quarter around it. The Muslims like to sell things to the tourists, and we were more than happy to be interested in their stuff. I was a hard bargainer -- a skill I learned in India! We had a buffet lunch in another dinner theatre place, but we didn't get the show.

We needed to do laundry this day, so we got the slip out at the hotel and filled it out and the lady came at 8:30 a.m. to pick it up. When we got back to the hotel after dinner, the laundry wasn't there and Doug went to look for it. It wasn't done, and they said we had to pay the express charge. The express charge was for anything not picked up before 10 a.m. They said it would be ready at 7 a.m. the next morning. Unfortunately, our guide was picking us up to go to the airport at 6:30 a.m. They hurried to get it done and knocked on our door at 10:30 p.m. with the finished laundry. It was about $37 US to have 2 socks, 2 shirts, 2 underwear for each of us! Another lesson learned!

Thursday we were up and ready to go to the airport back to Beijing. We arrived in Beijing at 10:30 and our tour guide Grace was there to pick us up. We had to stop by the travel agent's office to sign a Visa slip because our next leg was more expensive than originally planned. We then went to the train station to catch the bullet train to Tangu. We had some hours to waste in the train station, but we got a lot of reading done, and had lunch and a milk shake. The bullet train from Beijing to Tangu takes about an hour and goes 330 kilometers per hour. It's smooth and fast and nice. (If only there was one between Pune and Mumbai . . . . ) We took a taxi from the train station to the Holiday Inn. We had the directions in Chinese, but the taxi driver didn't know where we were heading until Doug mentioned Holiday Inn. Then he was off and running. The Holiday Inn in Tangu is really nice and modern, in the middle of a new and modern city. We met a John Deere expat and his daughter and went for dinner. I suppose Mexican food in China is not an everyday occurrence, but we enjoyed it!

Friday, Doug went to work with his John Deere friend. Hannah slept in. I had a massage! A nice Dr. of massage came to the room and I had a Chinese medicinal massage. I needed it. It was wonderful and it was about $15 US. Not bad. We had leftover Mexican food for lunch, watched movies, had a nap and waited for Doug to make it back from the factory. We checked out of our hotel and caught a taxi back to the train station. We took the train to Beijing, Grace picked us up and took us to the airport again. We had some more time to waste there. We had Burger King and an ice cream cone. Our flight to Dubai left at 12:00 midnight. We got into Dubai at 4:30 a.m. Again, we had a lot of time to waste before our flight to Mumbai at 9:45 a.m. We got into Mumbai at 2 p.m. and Feroz was there to pick us up. He is always a good sight to see after being gone from India. It took us 4 hours to get from the airport to home -- lots of traffic! We got home about 7 p.m. and had dinner at Prems. Back to the Indian food!

It has been very hot here and the electricity is going to be out more and more every day. Today when we were going to have church at 9 a.m., the power went out at 9 am. and came back on at 10:15. Then we started conference. We will see what this week brings. It is also election day on Thursday, so the politicians are promising electricity, water, and food. After the 23rd, we expect the power to be off even more!

Have a great day!
Love, Lucinda

Hi Everyone --

We just got back from the Great Wall of China. What a great day we had! We didn't see the wall close to Beijing (1 hour away), we took a former resident's advice and went to Simiti, about 3 hours away. We left the hotel at 7 a.m. so we would miss the Monday traffic. Everyone else in the hotel was leaving at 7 a.m. too, so breakfast was a nightmare!

We got on the road and had a nice drive out of town and up into the mountains. The air cleared and we finally saw sunshine and blue skies. We got there at 10 a.m. and started up the wall. This is a beautiful place with a river and lakes and mountains. The pictures will be very nice when we get a minute to load them into the computer.

We just went up and up and up. There were steps -- short, tall, broken, ramps, random sizes, trails along the side, etc. We had to stop often to catch our breath and rest our legs. It was very windy and I thought the wind would blow us right off the edge. It was kind of scary the wind blew so hard I thought it would blow my glasses right off, so I had to hold them on, and than messed up my bifocals so I couldn't see the steps very well. We did make it ok though. It took us 2 hours to go to 12 watch towers. It took us an hour to climb back down. The views were fabulous and the experience was breathtaking! What a great activity we had.

We had a great Chinese lunch at the bottom of the wall when we got down -- sweet and sour pork, chicken with cucumbers and peanuts, tomatoes and scrambled eggs, and rice. They did want to serve us boiling hot water. We decided to splurge and buy 3 bottles of ice cold mineral water.

Back into the car and another 3 hours back to Beijing. Luckily we got to sleep on the way. We are looking forward to having Chinese food for dinner tonight. The chopsticks are becoming more and more familiar!

We love you!
Love, Lucinda

Hi Everyone --

Having access to a computer and a bit of time to write everyday makes journaling so much easier!

We started out at 9:30 a.m. this morning and our objective was to find the church. We had a bad map off the Internet, bad directions off the Internet, a bad phone number off the Internet and off we went with a driver that spoke no English and no guide (she was caught in traffic). Who says you can't have an adventure on the way to church!? We got over to the general neighborhood and set out on foot. We got a block and found another American looking lost and asked if he was looking for the same thing we were -- and he was -- church! Now we had a bit more company to roam around. We had been down one block, he had been down another, so we tried the third. We didn't really find anything, but decided to cross the street and the river and try that building. We were in the lobby when an American lady in a skirt with a baby walked through. She was a member, so she directed us to the 4th floor. Otherwise, we would have had no idea which of the 30-40 floors church was on. They were watching General Conference so we got an hour of that in before we took off. We had more sightseeing to do, and we will watch conference with our Indian home group for the next ? weeks.

We went to the bell tower and climbed up the steep and tall steps. This tower used to ring one night (new years) and tell the time. The drum tower was next door but under construction so we didn't see that. Then we headed to lunch. It was a fun place decorated with trees and we had a dancing show while we ate. The food was Chinese, but it tasted more like the American Chinese we are used to. It was good.

We then headed to the silk factory to see how famous Chinese silk is made, We got to see the eggs, larvae, pupa, and moths. We watched them take the silk off the cocoon and make the silk thread. Then they showed us how they make silk comforters. I didn't know they did this at all. I know about down and man-made comforters, but not silk. they are very nice, very well made, and very expensive. We didn't buy anything at the silk store.

Next we headed to the big pearl market. This is like a huge mall with 4-5 floors of shops selling all kinds of Chinese things. Hannah got a pair of solid gold Converse All-Stars. We found Chinese gifts for everyone there. Bargaining here in China is much different than bargaining in India. My 2 years of experience helped, but it took a bit of practice and I did OK. Very intense and very high pressure! Doug said I wasn't such a push over as he thought I was! High compliment!

We got tired shopping and finally had to quit! We headed over to the theatre to see the Chinese Acrobatic show. This is the national acrobatic troupe and it was fabulous. We sat in the 2nd row from the front and saw everything very clearly. It was a fun evening.

We got back to the hotel and Doug and Hannah took off to find some dinner. I decided to write this letter. We are heading to the great wall tomorrow!

Have a great day!
Love, Lucinda

Hi Everyone --

Our hotel has plenty of computers and we have time to write! We had a fun day today -- our guide and driver picked us up at 8:30 a.m. and off we went. We first went to Tienanmen Square. There were tons of tourists there. Our guide (Grace) estimated 50,000. The amazing thing is that the tourists were not Europeans or Americans, they were Chinese! They were all in groups from buses and you could tell each group from another by the color of the baseball cap each person was wearing, as well as the flag being held by the guide. Somehow it was all very organized and everyone followed along just as they should have.

We next walked to Forbidden City. They had done much repainting and refurbishing for the Olympics, and it was fabulous. We walked from one end (Tienanmen Entrance) to the back door. We saw the government buildings, Imperial Palace, residency buildings, and then the garden in the back. Doug's favorite was the garden in the back. He did recognize the Hall of Supreme Knowledge, Grace, Goodness, and Love, and Peace from the Mulan movie.

Next we went to lunch at a Chinese restaurant! Imagine that! We are doing pretty good with chopsticks. The soup is still a bit hard to eat, but we asked for soup bowls and spoons, and they brought them (as they should have from the start). We had a potty break and the Chinese have the same squatty potties as the Indians.

Our next visit was to Baihai Park behind the Forbidden City. This is a beautiful park with wonderful gardens and a huge lake. There were many Chinese people out on the lake using peddle boats. It was very fun to watch. We walked to the top and saw the white temple (Buddhist). They did have a place where Hannah could dress up in Chinese clothes and get her picture taken, but she declined. We got pictures of 2 other girls and we will photoshop Hannah in.

We had to do our obligatory trip to the government pearl shop. The girl opened a freshwater oyster that had been seeded and showed us how they grew them. Too bad Hannah didn't have this experience when she was looking for a clam or oyster to dissect for her biology class last year! We looked at all the pearls and jewelry and decided we weren't ready to do any of that yet.

Our visit to the Summer palace was next. This is where the Dragon Lady empress lived. Another beautiful place by a lake with lots of boats. We got on a big dragon boat and crossed the lake and then walked back through a covered corridor that was all painted. We wouldn't want the emperor to get wet or have too much sun. There were lots of trees and flowering bushes and since it's spring here, everything is in bloom. Forsythia, pink and white crab apple blossoms and lots of other beautiful plants. It is really nice to have spring -- not available in India.

We were dropped back off at our hotel where I rested for about an hour, then we went to dinner. We didn't get as lucky as last night, but we did ok. First of all, no one speaks English, so we look at the menu and point to the pictures. We do know the word for water now -- she did get that, but I think she was very embarrassed. They called over a gal that spoke English to help us. We ordered steamed wontons, pork, vegetable, and noodles. Pretty complete meal! So, they bring us chopsticks and no forks. We at a whole pile of corn piece by piece, kernel by kernel, with chopsticks! I was very impressed with myself! I have never been able to eat with chopsticks in my life. Now my life depends on it and I can do it! The really difficult part about our meal was watching the 3 year old girl at the next table feed herself with her chopsticks and she did better than Doug! She was just a champ at fishing the noodles out of her soup and transferring them to her soup bowl and then eating them. It was amazing! Even Hannah was impressed!

Back on the street, we checked out the other half of the block and we found a gal selling cigarettes and ice cream. We got ice cream! We had a fun day, lots of new adventures and lots of walking. China is so much better than India!

We love you and miss you!
Love, Lucinda


Hi Everyone --

We have arrived in China and all is well! We had uneventful flights from Mumbai to Dubai, and Dubai to Beijing. Emirates is a nice airline to fly and their planes were new. The Dubai airport is HUGE and new (I assume it's all that oil money). They has us get off the plane far away (probably Oman) and ride a bus to the terminal. It took 1/2 hour to get there (or at least it seemed like it). We had Burger King at 1 a.m. -- anything for a burger! Our flight to Beijing left at 3:20 a.m. We mostly slept, ate, and watched movies. We got into Beijing at 2:30 p.m. local time. We went through immigration and found our luggage, then found my name on a sign board amongst hundreds of other name boards. It was nice to just find our guide, go out to the rented car, have them take us to the tour office (to pay for the rest of our tour) and have a ride to the hotel. Our guide, Grace, helped us get checked in, find an ATM and pointed the direction for a place to eat dinner.

Dinner was heaven! We checked out a number of places and decided on one that had charcoal grills in the middle of the tables. The menu had pictures of raw meat -- beef, chicken, mutton, seafood and we chose chicken and beef and they came and grilled it on the table for us. We ate it with sticks (a new adventure for me and Hannah). We also had noodles and tempora vegetables. We were stuffed. It was very good! Hannah had us back there eating already tomorrow.

We are tired and Hannah has gone up to the room. Doug is checking his work emails. We are set up with our guides, reservations, activities, etc. for the rest of our time here in China. This seems a bit more expensive, but it sure feels good to be taken care of in a foreign country!

Just so you know we're safe!
Love, Lucinda