Father's Day 2008

Having snacks in a Chinese hutong with our new friends (far right).

From within the walls of the Forbidden City, Beijing, China.

Riding the rickshaw express!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! Though it's still a few hours until I'm officially a daddy, everyone in our group was wishing the men a "Happy Father's Day" this morning at breakfast. And then Lisa gave me a very nice Father's Day card this afternoon.

A couple of things quick before I go on about the day. I've not been able to view my blog for the past two days. I can get in via blogger.com to post, but I absolutely cannot view it. Not sure what's up with that. I mentioned it to the group, and several said they had heard that blogger.com is censored and/or blocked out in Beijing. I told them I had been on it for several days. One then said, "Perhaps you are being censored?" So if it's not sounding or looking quite right, I guess I'll just have to fix it sometime later.

Second thing, I forgot to mention that we took a driving tour of the Olympic Village yesterday afternoon along with the other things we had done. The Olympics will be especially fun to watch this summer having just been here and seeing some of the venues. I'm sure we'll be sitting in front of the TV and saying "Oh, we were there!"

Today, we went to Tianamen (spelling?) Square and the Forbidden City. Both are magnificent to see and visit, and made for some especially good picture taking opportunities. And we finally had a very nice day today with sunshine and the clearest skies we've seen since arriving. A little breeze was blowing, so it also keep it cool after such a steamy day yesterday. I'm not sure how many miles we walked today, but it was alot! The Forbidden City is very large and we walked all the way from one end to the other. So much history, fortress type walls and gates, and what I call the "pagoda" style of architecture is in much abundance here. Joy is still our tour guide, and she gave us so much history on the area, it's unbelievable! We also saw the building where Chairman Mao is entombed. It's been over 30 years since he died, and there is still a 3-4 hour wait at all times to view his body. I guess it's just his face that is visible, but I must admit if we had more time, I would gladly have stood in line for the viewing.

This afternoon we then went for a rickshaw ride and to the hutong district of old Beijing City. A hutong (not sure about the spelling) is a home or area where many families basically live together. In older times, the people living together almost always consisted of family members, but that is not so much the norm now. We were treated to the hospitality of an older couple who have moved back to a hutong since retiring. He had been involved in the aerospace industry while she had worked in a clothing factory. Very nice people, though they didn't speak a word of English. It gave everyone in our group a chance to practice our Chinese. Let's just say it's a good thing we had an interpreter with us!

For those who don't know what a rickshaw is, it's a little two-wheel cart that is pulled behind a bicycle. The cart has a canopy over the top and is actually more comfortable to ride in than it appears. Those rickshaw drivers can put those things through the narrowest of spaces and are particularly brave when it comes to other traffic, whether it be other rickshaws, bicycles, cars or something larger! Between the rickshaw and the visit to the hutong, we certainly saw a different side to how people in other parts of the world live. Makes us very thankful for what we have!

We had lunch about 3pm, courtesy of Bethany Christian Services. Since our trip to the Great Wall yesterday was less than we had hoped for due to the weather, Bethany picked up the tab for lunch. I have no idea what the name of the place was, but the food was excellent! Both today and yesterday, the food has been served family style on a large "spinner" or "lazy Susan" in the middle of the table. It's made for some very nice variety and nobody should be going hungry. And be sure to ask me about the toilet in this place when I get home! We all had to check it out! And I use the word "toilet" because "restroom" or "bathroom" are words that don't seem to be found in the Chinese dialect.

I also asked Joy when the name "Beijing" was first adopted, because when I was young, it was always "Peking". Turns out is has always been Beijing! The Peking name came simply from how it was pronounced by the Cantonese, and Westerners simply spelled the city name the way it sounded in Cantonese. And "Beijing" means "north capitol". Bei means north, while jing means capitol. Very interesting...........

Upon returning to the hotel, we ventured next door to a market place and picked up a keepsake for us to take home. It's a series of four scrolls, each with a picture of the four different seasons. We think it will make for a nice memento of out trip and will be hung prominently on the big wall in our dining room. Seeing it will also keep Olivia aware of her heritage. We also picked up 3 more "Gotcha Day" gifts for Olivia, which again, I cannot share the contents.

And speaking of Olivia, she should be in our arms in about 19 hours! We fly out of Beijing to Nanchang, Jiangxi Province in the morning, leaving here at 7:30 am. It will be a two-hour flight, we'll check into our hotel, and then we'll get our Fu girls at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon, or about 2:30 am Iowa time. We are so anxious, so excited, and so scared, you cannot believe it! But we won't be any more scared than that sweet little girl who will be making our family whole tomorrow. Her little world is about to be turned upside down, so we are just hoping and praying that we can be good enough parents to turn it rightside up again.

Tomorrow is "gotcha day" and the day we've waited almost 3 years to have arrive. When you go to bed tonight, please say an extra prayer for the Christensen family, our whole family - Lisa, Max & Olivia. By the time you awaken in the morning, Olivia will be with us!