Plumas Christian School Trip to China!

Today is already Tuesday! Sorry we havent kept much up on the blog. Thanks to our extremely efficient local guide in Beijing, Fernando (who looks like a panda, self-taught himself 4 languages, and speaks with an endearing stutter) have been shedding pounds from all our walking. We have also learned a crash course in Chinese history from the construction of the Great Wall a hundred years BC to the fall of the empire and the rise of current government.

Fernando took us on sat night to a variety show which included shadow puppets, dance, water pouring with a trick teapot, mask changing, and martial arts. Nick volunteered to challenge a martial artist on stage and actually got some kicks to make contact! The warrior eventually ran around the stage in circles until the point in the music when it was choreographed for him to be defeated, but if it had been a real fight, Nick just might have won anyway. Nick didnt know he was competing for a Chinese bride who performed a special dance to celebrate.

Sunday we stopped at a jade factory and showroom. Then we scaled the Great Wall, which ascends the mountain ridges like a snake at dramatic gradients. Lunch was at a famous ceramics shop. Dinner at a restaurant with a sweet sharing time in our group at dinner.

Monday, yesterday, saw us tramping around Beijing's Forbidden City--the emperor's winter residence. We also took subways and buses to the Summer Palace built by the Jezebel of China, Xiu Xi (sushi), who believed she was a goddess. She drowned two people in order to get power, gave birth to the next male emperor, and then poisoned her thre year old son in order to remain in power.

This lady also used ground pearl from the lake by her palace to treat wrinkles. We stopped at the pearl store before Peking Duck at a restaurant for locals with our guide.

Today we will stop at the silk market for shopping before our FLIGHT HOME!!!!

We will arrive three hours before we leave, so we still have some time to burn ;)