China- Day 3

We started the day off at Tiananmen Square. It was amazing to be there. The pollution is so bad, you can hardly see the picture of Mao Zedong from across the street where we took the picture.

This is inside the forbidden city- the Chinese Imperial Palace. For almost five centureis, it was used as the home of the Emporer as well as the center of the political government. There are still over 980 buildings standing, covering more than 7,800,00 square feet.

I love this picture of Kent's cousins and nephews. They are such good boys.

This little chinese boy was adorable playing with his toy.

After the forbidden city, we went to the Jade Factory. It was neat to learn more about Jade. This is Kade (Kent's nephew) standing next to an eagle completely made of Jade. I was planning on getting a bracelet or something from the factory- I had no idea how precious of a stone it is and how expensive it can be.

Next we went over to see the Ming underground tombs. Although more than a dozen Emporers are buried here, we were only able to see two of them that are open to the public. We were in awe to see the construction of these structures that were so ahead of their time. To have these incredibly strong buildings last for thousands of years is truly amazing.

We finished up the day with a peaceful walk down the Sacred Way (or divine road) of the Animals. This was believed to be the road leading to heaven. The Emporer was thought to enter from heaven through this road and then return to heaven through this road. This was the only place we went where there were not a ton of people. There were large stone animals on either side of the walkway that each had specific symbolic purposes.


On our way in to the walkway, there were people in their booths, trying to sale us things.

China- Day 2

The second day of our trip started early with a 2 hour bus ride to the Great Wall of China. Load 'em up!
There were some shopping booths on the walkway up to the stairs. There were some people dressed up in traditional Chinese costumes.

We had to hike over 900 steep steps before we even reached the wall.

It was unreal to actually be walking on the Great Wall of China. It was interesting to hear that as they were building the wall, if anyone died they would just throw them in and build the wall over them.




Some of us decided to ride the cable car down. The view was incredible, even with the thick fog covering the mountains.

On the way back to the bus, we stopped off for a little camel ride!


There are some great pictures of George trying to get off the camel. I think Kevin (Kent's brother) got some footage on his video camera that might win him 10,000 from America's Funniest Videos.

One of the highlights of the trip was visiting the orphanage. These kids are children of convicts who either are waiting for their parents to be released from prison, if their parents have a life sentence, the children will live at this orphanage until they are old enough to be on their own. In each of these little houses, they have around 12 children. We all had so much fun handing out presents, books, crayons, toys, soccer balls and footballs. Most of them had never seen a football before. They had fun learning new games.

Here is the bathroom that each of the homes have. Most of China toilets are in the ground like these. It was very interested using the public restrooms- in some cases there was someone at the door to give you a ration of toilet paper before you go in to use "the squatter." Most of the places didn't even have toilet paper to offer. Since the toilets were basically holes in the ground, they didn't flush, so you would throw your toilet paper in a basket in the corner. The bathrooms were not very pleasant... have I said enough?
Next to the small school room, they had an art gallery with the artwork of the children. My favorite were these dolls they made.

The best part of the orphanage, for me, was being able to see Kent offer dental relief to so many kids that were in pain. When we got there, kids started lining up to show Kent their sore teeth to see if he could help them.





The circumstances were difficult. Since the only light in the room was the light coming in the windows, Kent's dad held a large flashlight overhead for Kent to be able to see the teeth that needed attention. Kent's uncle, Doug, held the chair back in his lap so Kent could get a better angle.
I was lucky enough to be able to hand Kent the tools that he needed and hold the hands of the children so they wouldn't be as scared. It was hard not being able to communicate with them and tell them how good they were doing.


This little boy had to have three teeth extracted. He was so brave. Everyone cheered and clapped for him when he was finished. Then we gave him some presents.

China- Day 1

We left our house early Wednesday morning, April 8th, to meet my parents in Boise. After a five hour drive with the kids, we met at Red Robin and dropped off Ethan and Ella to go to Utah. Kent and I then caught our first flight from Boise to LA to meet up with Kent's family to fly to Bejing, with a layover in Korea. The flight was very long but we made it. Since we flew through the night, we arrived in Beijing in the morning so we didn't have time to go to the hotel to freshen up before beginning a busy day. We hopped on this bus and headed to the Pearl Factory for lunch.
Isn't this dining room beautiful?

After we ate, we were able to see a large oyster shell that held these beautiful pearls.

Anyone want to wear a pearl around their neck?

Then we headed over to the Emporer's Summer Palace.

Our tour guide carried a green flag for us to follow. If we were ever lost, we would look for this green flag.

It was incredible to learn about the Chinese history and the people. (as you look at the pictures remember- we've been traveling for two days)

We were caught off guard that people were surrounding our group with their cameras and video cameras to take pictures of us. Our tour guide told us that some of them lived in the country and had never seen people that look like us. The little kids were like celebrities!


This lady wanted her picture taken with Laura. I love this picture!

The chinese architecture and ornate details were just amazing.




We got to ride across the river on one of the boats that look like a dragon.


What are the chances to find a big screen playing a basketball game at the Emporer's Summer Palace? Leave it to the Copeland boys...

As we left the Palace, we were swarmed by street vendors wanting to sale us watches.