Bringing in Chinese new years with a Blast in Beijing!

We are back from our vacation! It was a fanatically, wonderful, eye opening and refreshing trip. There is so much to write and say....I will try and keep it short. I will update the blog with a writing about each of our stops on this past trip. We have so many great pictures...I will do my best to put in the best ones.
First BEIJING! Wow!
To get there we took a 2 hours Coach ride to where we could catch a Bullet Train. YEP! A BULLET TRAIN! It was A-W-E-S-O-M-E! While on the train it tells you how fast you are going. We were constantly going 300-302 KMH which equals to around 186-187 MPH! It was roomy, clean, smooth and FAST!

After checking into our Hotel we found a great place to eat and had some Dandan noodles. It's one of our new favorites.

The next day we walked to Tiananmen Square and checked that out and got the lay of the land and learned how the Beijing Subway system works. The security was pretty tight to get into Tiananmen square. The lines were pretty long and set up pretty wacky. It went from 6 "lines" to 4 to 3. I put lines in quotes because it was just really a blob of people. All very impressive.

Security line to get into Tiananmen. The "line" was just as long behind us. It move fast only took like 20 min or so.

A beautiful day at Tiananmen

Tiananmen was pertty big!

The next day we went to the Forbidden Palace (which is closed on Mondays and right next to Tiananmen) and that was fun to walk through and get some more of the history of China. AND we saw Santa.

Elijah chatting it up with Santa from "California/NewZealand" (wink, wink)

Jami standing in Forbidden Palace royalty walk with her guards surrounding her

Main courtyard inside Forbidden Palace

Inside Forbidden Palace

We, then, went to the Temple of Heaven and loved it! I personally liked that more than the Forbidden Palace. It was beautiful and had a huge park around it that you could stroll and enjoy the views.

Temple of Heaven 

View over looking Beijing at Temple of Heaven

7 symbolic rocks representing the mountain ranges in China in the Gardens of Temple of Heaven

Family selfie just below Temple of Heaven

The next day we went to the Great Wall of China! My oh my! What a sight! It is definitely something that is mind boggling. SO BIG....SO LARGE....SOOOOO GREAT! There are several parts of the Great Wall that you can visit. They are quite some distance apart. The part that we went to was Mutianyu. Part of the Great Wall package we took the toboggan sled ride down. Sooooo fun! It was the perfect day to visit the wall. It was clear and you could see for miles.
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Us with Ruby at the Great Wall of China!

Me with my GREAT Wife!

An amazing sight!

There were some steep stairs in some parts, it was a good hike.

Walking the path of some of the original unrestored part of the wall

The boys at an unrestored tower of the Wall with what we just hiked in the background

Family at the unrestored tower

Unrestored and unmaintained portion

Getting ready for the ride down! What a blast!

Heading to the festival in the freshly fallen Beijing snow

Next we met up with the Gunter-Comish family that lives in our Church Branch in China and were visiting Beijing as well. (Yes Aunt Kristi they are related on the Gunter side) We had a great time getting to know them the final couple of days we were in Beijing and going to parks and city fair/festival.

Our family with Andrea, Brandon and Leot Gunter-Comish

Everest loving the firecrackers

Another great experience we had was to see and be part of the Chinese New year celebrations. If you are a fireworks lover then on Chinese New years you need to be in Beijing! Hours and Hours and Hours of Fireworks were going off all around town. We bought some and got to light them on a bridge along one of the many Hutongs (neighborhoods with side shops and restaurants) that we walked.

Looking out over the city of Beijing just after midnight on 2/19/15

Fireworks exploding just outside our Hotel window

Some other notes of some things we did and some first's....We got to ride a city subway for the 1st time (not for Jami). It was exciting and fun to people watch and travel all around town. We met some great people and some distant family. Elijah, also, approached foreigners and asked where they were from and why they were here. For the most part they were welcoming and we met some great people from England, Jamaica, Germany, Brazil, Spain, Australia, Switzerland, France, UK, Belgium, Israel, India, Argentina and several US States and more. On the other had we had a handful for really rude people and sadly to say they were mostly American.










Here is a 2 minute video of us welcoming in the New Year! The year of the Goat!  Click or copy this link for the Fireworks on New Years....beats any Fireworks show down on the 4th of July in The States!

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B13cZM75qQxQR3JJd0hhUmFqaEU/edit

Next stop....Shenyang China!