Beijing

Beijing
September 15-18 2016

     China was quite the adventure that never stopped amazing us! One of our great trips was us going to Beijing, the capital of China. We started off by taking a G-train to Beijing, which is a fast bullet train that only takes a few hours to go hundreds of miles. The train ride was more comfortable than an airplane ride, and a lot cheaper. 

     When we first arrived we went and found our hostel and got our room; a small room with two bunk beds. We then went to the pearl market and went shopping. It's not normal shopping, but bartering. It gets quite fun and sometimes addicting seeing how cheap you can get things for. That evening we ended up getting some shoes, jewelry and a cheap miniature projector and some other things while there for all fairly cheap. 

     On our way out of the market I found a van driver who would take us and the other teachers who were with us to the Great Wall. The next day he picked us up early in the morning and we went on a drive up into some foggy mountains. The driver didn't know any English and so at first we were worried he was taking us to the wrong place, especially when we got out at a random, tiny village in the mountains. We could hardly see because of the fog, but the driver pointed to a trail and we began hiking. 

     The trail we were going to was supposed to begin in the mountains and take us to an old, unrestored section of the wall. It took an hour or so but before we knew it we were at the wall. It felt like a dream as we climbed onto it and looked over the winding wall that was the Great Wall of China. It wound over steep hills and cliffs, barely standing from the test of time as pieces of the wall were missing or broken.

 

     We walked along the wall for a while taking in the views. It was really foggy so we couldn't see too far but it was beautiful and felt mysterious. We eventually made it to the restored section of the wall that was quite amazing. It had been fixed several times and rebuilt, making it look exactly as it had for hundreds of years. It was an amazing thing to see and we will never forget those memories. 

      While in Beijing we also went to the Forbidden City, a national museum, another market, Summer Palace and the Muslim Quarters, which all were fascinating and amazing, yet the Great Wall was the most stunning. The Forbidden City was neat though, and as we were taking pictures a photography group came and asked if they could take pictures of Ivy. It was hilarious but they loved the blonde American girl as a model! 

     On every trip of ours we tried our best to either go to church or at least keep the sabbath day holy. In Beijing we found out when and where the church was and woke up early to get there. The churches in China are kind of hard to find since it's usually in someone's home or in a rented business place. There is never a sign or anything to indicate it's a church so they're hard to find. 

     We took the metro to the stop and got off and began walking towards the church, or at least where we thought it may be. We stood in this alleyway where people were selling lots of food and we looked around confused, not sure where to go. Suddenly we saw a few other people, American looking, dressed in church clothes. They approached us, probably because we looked lost, and asked us if we were looking for church. 

     We were happy and surprised at their question but of course said yes. They were members and were headed to church as well. We began walking with them and ended up going somewhere that we never would have figured out was the church. It was in an office building on a certain floor and was hard to find. Other teachers who had come to Beijing with us left later than we did and never could find the church. We knew we were blessed to have ran into these members. 

     Now, as I may have said before, the world is small especially when you're a member of the LDS Church. It's even smaller when you know Ivy's family. The older couple who walked us to the church were actually from Bern Idaho, the small town of 135 people where Ivy's dad was raised and her grandparents live. The lady was in fact Marilynn Hadd, Ivy's grandma’s past visiting teacher.

     We were blown away when we made this connection and couldn't believe our ears. There were two other wards going on in that building and we just happened to run into a lady from Bern. Ivy and her talked and it was fun to hear about their experience in China. They had moved there to teach English as a service mission in a way. 

      Church was a wonderful and we definitely felt the spirit during the sacrament. We knew we were in the right place and had made the right decision. Making that connection with that couple was a little tender mercy that made us less homesick and we knew the Lord was guiding our lives. The rest of our trip in Beijing was fun and neat, but the seeing the little Branch in that business building and meeting people we had a connection to was as memorable as the Great Wall of China. 

     Always keep the Sabbath day holy as much as possible and go to church whenever you can. There were Sundays where we didn't make it to church, we weren't perfect or we couldn't make it sometimes, but we went when we could and every time we did we were blessed in some way. The Lord is always looking out for us!