Beijing October Holiday

October holiday we met my Dad and his younger co-worker, Andrew, in Beijing. We climbed the hill overlooking the Forbidden City to take pictures. The Drum Tower has an Olympic like drum performance after ascending the steep dangerous wooden stairs to the top. We ate Beijing duck and inspired by Andrew most of us, except for me, nibbled a fried scorpion. We imagined ourselves standing in TianAnMen Square for the flag lowering ceremony, but that was impossible for the millions of people with the same idea.

On two separate occasions ladies handed us Christian tracts. The first lady walked by real fast and put the paper in GaoYan’s hand without saying a word. The second lady was standing at a subway station. I was pushing Joy in the stroller so she helped me carry Joy up the stairs. I said, “Thank you so much.” She said, “Thank the Lord.” I looked around and over my shoulder wondering if they could legally hand out these tracts and said a prayer for their safety and great work to spread the Gospel.

Patrick and his girlfriend met us in Beijing at the Temple of Heaven one day. We saw something romantic from Patrick. His girlfriend had chosen high heels for a day with lots of walking and her feet hurt. Patrick offered his scandals to his girlfriend while he walked barefoot for a while. After we all ate a hotpot lunch together. Back in June Patrick moved from Hangzhou to Beijing.

HaiBin was one of our first neighbors in Hangzhou in 2008. HaiBin taught GaoYan some art classes, and Caleb is the same age as her little boy. About the time we were moving out of ZhongXin neighborhood, HaiBin’s family was moving to Beijing. Ever since, GaoYan and HaiBin have kept in touch and seen each other once a year. While visiting Beijing, our family stayed with HaiBin and family one night. The next day we all climbed the Great Wall together. We slid down from the Great Wall on a luge just in time to miss my Dad and Andrew’s flight to Hangzhou.