Beijing and Back

We've enjoyed three very busy, happy weeks full of special happenings. But I think I'll report on them in three separate entries so they can be properly highlighted!

We finally took a much looked-forward-to trip to Beijing leaving Xi'an on Friday evening May 13. We dashed to the airport right after John got out of his last class. After a two-hour flight we landed in a very different China than the one we live in. (One of our fellow BYU teachers here, after her return from Beijing, aptly said Xi'an is China's Tooele--not that Tooele isn't good. It is just Tooele by comparison.)

After our earlier visits to other very economically up-and-coming Chinese cities of Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, I had expected to find Beijing cleaner, more modern and generally more cutting edge than Xi'an. What I hadn't expected was to find that I felt so at home there! Beijing, like Xi'an is an ancient Chinese city, laid out like an ancient Chinese city. I'm guessing that that is the source of my comfort. Perhaps Brigham Young would have approved the layout of these two places with their grid-like logic. That said, Beijing was bigger, brighter, and faster paced than Xi'an and for us was a delightful three-day adventure. We loved even our trip into town on the airport express train.

I had booked us through the internet a well-located reasonable Chinese hotel very close by the northern entrance to the Forbidden City and also made arrangements for a bus tour to the Great Wall, Ming tombs, Jade and Silk Factories. Both bookings turned out to be great successes.

The Red Wall Hotel was certainly not posh but was clean and convenient and had a wonderful concierge who spoke English well and helped direct us to subway stations, bus lines, sites, and even an international China Post location. He was as useful to us in Beijing as Mr. Chen has been in Xi'an.

Saturday morning our tour leaders picked us up at our hotel and for 100 kuai ($15) each we with five others tourists--an Italian couple and a family of three from Taiwan--were given great value for our few dollars.

We were first driven to the Badaling Great Wall site where we took the cable car up to the wall before climbing on up to the top, where we could see some 28 kilometers of the amazing ancient wall.

We had two delightful tour guides who taught us along the way and helped us out all day. We couldn't see how they could pay for the gas for the bus for the journey, let alone for the included lunch and entrance fees.

The Great Wall was at the top of John's want-to-see-in-China list and right up there on mine. The day was beautiful with a blue sky, which stayed clear and sunny without being hot. The crowds weren't too bad and the people, both Chinese and foreign visitors were friendly and happy. Some who again wanted their pictures taken with these two Americans. We were happy to oblige them delighted with their friendliness.

I especially enjoy it when older Chinese seek our company. It isn't surprising that the young people want to talk to us--they want to practice their English on us. But the older folks who grew up with no contact with the world beyond their own and who suffered through the Cultural Revolution, wars, and famines--while we enjoyed those same years attending college, meeting, and marrying, beginning our family. These were people who suffered great hardships, yet who reach out to us with such warmth; they never cease to touch my heart.

From the Great Wall we drove to the Ming Tombs, not far from Badaling, where we saw the first and biggest of the tombs. The site was chosen by the third Ming Dynasty emperor Yongle (1402–1424), who moved the capital of China from Nanjing to the present location of Beijing.

He is credited with envisioning the layout of the ancient city of Beijing as well as a number of landmarks and monuments located therein, one being the construction of the Imperial Palace (the Forbidden City) in 1420. The Yongle Emperor selected his burial site and created his own mausoleum. The Ming tombs of the 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty were located on the southern slope of Tianshou Mountain. From the Yongle Emperor onward, 13 Ming Dynasty Emperors were buried in this area.

The actual burial place is not known, only on the mountain beyond the mausoleum but the stones proclaim it to be his place and, our guides told us, use his special "temple name"--A name given him by his father but never used until his death, as he goes forward into the world beyond.

We always get a kick out of the odd "Chinglish" signs we find throughout China.

From the tombs we drove to the jade factory where we learned a little more about the quality and value of the diverse stone from which many beautiful things are carved by men who have devoted their lives to the art.

Jadite is the hardest and most costly but often included in this family are agate and lapis. It is all beautiful and very meaningful to the Chinese. For thousands of years, Jade has been the most sought-after jewel in the Orient. In China, people treasure it more than any other gem. There is a Chinese saying that everything has a price, but jade is priceless. It has certainly become my favorite memento to look out for in China.

We enjoyed our included lunch upstairs from the factory and display areas before leaving again--this time with the destination of another Chinese treasure--the silk factory. For some 2,000 years the Chinese kept the art of making silk to themselves until the silk road opened up and the secrets of the process made its journey to the known world beyond China. (Much later, of course, our own family history tells of Andrew Hunter Scott's being part of the early Utah silk industry.)

One of the products made of silk is a light-weight but very warm quilt composed of all silk fibers. Of course other types of linens are readily available as well, at very low prices. In addition to those is silk cloth by the tons. Seeing it makes it easy to see why the Chinese love their silk.


After our full day we were glad to get back to the Red Wall and turn in for the night. It had been a most memorable day.

Sunday we had our usual yogurt and fruit breakfast and began with a quick call home to wish Pop Laing a happy 95th birthday. His actual birthday was on May 11th but the family was together to celebrate today (Saturday May 14, in Utah).

We were so pleased that both Adam's and Chi's families were able to attend in Springville and have that chance to see Grandpa and Grandma, hear Grandpa's testimony and listen to his songs and stories. We found him in good spirits, though tired from the events of the day. He hadn't been sure he would make it to this birthday. Now he says his goal is to live until we get home in August! Who knows what his timetable will be but we are content to leave it in the Lord's hands.

After our call we headed out to the subway to find the building were the three Beijing Branches meet. We went early since we had interviews with Pres. Rogers, first counselor in the district presidency, in order to get our temple recommends signed. Ours weren't due to expire until November but since it is unlikely that John will be released as Xi'an's branch president until some time after we return home and therefore we would not be able to have those interviews with our Salt Lake bishop and stake president, we thought it the better part of valor to have our interviews now.

As branch president, it is always an interesting experience for John to interview himself and sign twice on his own recommend. It is pretty special to have him interview me as well. As in all priesthood functions, he dressed the part and performed his office with great dignity, standing in as he is for the Savior. We were delighted to have our new recommends all ready to go for the future as opportunity presents itself for us to attend the temple.

We also met with President Toronto and discussed our desire to serve a temple mission. Though at that time we didn't know whether or not we would be required to fill out missionary papers, we learned that in China everything is done on paper--no online applications as is done every where else in the Church. Just in case we would need them we made arrangements to pick up blank missionary packets the next day from Pres. Toronto's office, where he works as legal counsel for China's NBA.

After our Church meetings we went with Kyle and Mary Latimer's to their home directly behind the US Embassy, where Kyle works as legal counsel. They had invited us to dinner. It was delightful to visit with them and enjoy the good food and company.


After dinner we took the subway to the Temple of Heaven to walk the grounds of the beautiful park. It was too late to go inside but we were still glad to see it.


Monday while John worked on some editing he was doing, I picked up our tickets to the Forbidden City, took our silk quilt to the international China Post office and shipped it off home, and tracked down the NBA office to collect the packets.


When I got back we went together to wander through the massive Imperial Palace grounds that are the Forbidden City.

Built in 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 buildings. From the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty--some 500 years--it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government. We spend a good portion of our remaining time in Beijing seeing just a tiny glimpse of all there was there to see.

Worn out with walking we finally arrived at the south gate looking out toward Tienanmen Square. What a place!

Our last stop before the airport was to run through Beijing's pearl market. It too got only a moment of our attention--long enough to know we would not do it any justice, or the knock-off shops housed in the other floors of the building. But we got a feel for what was there before we took the train back to the airport, glad for the hour's trip to rest our walked-off feet.

We arrived home by about 9:00 pm, put the final touches on our ppts for our classes the next morning and turned in for the night, happy that we had experienced Beijing. We feel that the sands of time for our China adventure are fast slipping away from us and we are trying to crowd in everything possible before it is over.

Sunday Blessings in Xi'an

Today is Mother's Day and it was a lovely hot summer-like day. Xi'an is now experiencing its annual spring/summer influx of visitors. Our little 21-person branch swelled to double its size with tourists--two dads from Homer, Alaska traveling through China with their teenage daughters and an amazing large group of doctors here from Utah and other western states to perform surgeries on Starfish's babies to repair their cleft pallets and hare lips. What a wonderful group of men who had left the comforts of their profitable medical practices to come to China at their own expense to bless little lives.

These little children, often "thrown away" because they are perceived as somehow "broken" are being given a change to be made outwardly whole because of the skills and talents used by those who are willing to so serve.


Today in our Sunday School class we were studying lesson 17 in the New Testament--"What Shall I Do That I May Inherit Eternal Life." The subject matter seemed to me to be particularly appropriate as we read from Mark 10 of the rich young man who longed for eternal life yet who went away sorrowing when the Lord, who "loved him" instructed him to sell whatsoever he had, give it to the poor, and follow him. He just couldn't sacrifice the world when he had "great possessions." The challenge of covetousness and a love of riches with its temptation to focus on the world seems to be ever with us. Certainly that temptation is abundant in China as the gap between rich and poor ever widens and deepens.

With little foundational principles to keep them safe from the adversary's lures of the great and spacious building with all its worldly delights, many of them, as one concerned grad student expressed it to me at English Corner this week, have no barriers through which they will not push past in order to gain wealth. If it means (as has happened) that they market formula laced with cheap white chalk rather than milk powder in order to increase their profit margin, so be it. After all the population is so great, if a few babies die, it is a good thing! What a contrast to these good men, here to bless lives, giving of their time, talents, and energy. As Mark 10 goes on to teach, it is impossible for the rich who trust in riches to gain eternal life, but with those who trust in God, all things are possible (JST Mark 10:27). It was a happy thing to see the wonderful side of that contrast today.

Another happy part of our meetings was our Relief Society. It is my turn to arrange for lessons and conduct and I had asked Xiaoyu Belnap to teach the lesson concerning Developing our Talents. She is a fairly recent convert--a Chinese married to John's tall, red-headed, second counselor. A mom of a two-year old, still trying to figure out the gospel, motherhood, and all the interesting challenges the gospel brings into our lives as we embrace it. She did an awesome job with the lesson, full of funny little stories of her own struggles to figure things out. Amanda Delange, there from the beginning when Xiaoyu first joined and then married Patrick and came to Xi'an told of Xiaoyu's inability to so much as give a prayer in English.

Yet here she was, growing, as we all do, by accepting the assignments we are asked to do, and in the process finding our potential to grow and develop those God-given capacities. I couldn't help but think of D&C 46:9-15 about spiritual gifts (talents!) that we are given "that all might be benefited." We don't all have all the gifts, "for there are many" but we are all given a gift and we are blessed by our own and others around us as we use them. I am deeply grateful that it is so. I like to think forward to some future day, when the time is right, when the Lord will bring about his purposes in this vast land and think of the power that Xiaoyu and Ning Ning and the other Chinese members of this Church (those we don't even know about) will be as they become more and more seasoned in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Following our meeting block we enjoyed our monthly branch potluck and had fun with the visiting and sharing that is always further enhanced with good food--goodies from Amanda's kitchen made by her volunteers (she says cooking is definitely not her talent), cobb salad makings, bbq beef and potato salad, with a little touch of Chinese veggies to add some variety, even homemade bread that Ning Ning has become an expert in baking--developing a new talent--The Chinese don't typically do much with bread.

We came home and crashed for a much needed nap--our usual Sunday afternoon activity--but with happy hearts for having been part of the events of the day.

Shanghai and Suzhou then back to Xi'an

We have recently returned from a wonderful trip to Suzhou and Shanghai. Since my English-major sophomores had a required week of doing "engineering projects"--building hammers and making little chairs or vases (neither I nor they have any idea why they have such a requirement!)--I only had to teach on Wednesday and so was freed up to on Thursday. John's students had a "sports day" to participate in on Friday so he too had a holiday from his Friday classes.

A perfect chance for a necessary get away. Our primary goal was to visit friends of our Kimmy's in Suzhou and to go to the Shanghai Russian consulate to try to obtain our needed Russian visas for our trip home through Moscow and St. Petersburg to allow us to visit Stephen Sorenson, our former stake president, now Moscow Mission president and his wife, Corrine.

It has been such fun to have contact with Kimmy's best friend and marathon running partner--through Skype of course. It has almost seemed like having family here since Julie is so much like Kimmy, both in looks and personality. Her husband is here in China as an entrepreneur, working with the Chinese government in an effort to make micro loans available to poor factory workers (who can't get loans from banks). He is using an innovative approach, working with the banks, government, and the employers. It is a really awesome program that has the potential to benefit the little guy in China--a group all too often neglected and forgotten. We pray that things will come together for them to make this a real success. He has great investors supporting the project, the government and the banks are on board. The hitch is the factory employers who want something for themselves to make the program available to their workers--a program that costs them nothing and benefits their people. China is a challenge! We wish them well in their adventures.

Anyway, Julie was awesome in arranging things for us. We stayed with them and then she lined up with branch friends to loan us cars and drivers to get us all over the area. (Many of the big companies provide a lot of perks to their foreign employees--among them new SUVs and Chinese drivers.) It was so kind of them to make these available to us. What a change from our usual mode of transportation in crowded and dusty Xi'an buses!

Shanghai is huge and a mix of the modern and the old. Though to tell the truth, our impression of Shanghai went only as far as the Russian consulate and the Shanghai pearl market. The rest of our time was spent in Suzhou.

Thursday we flew into Pudong, Shanghai's hugh new airport, east of the city, where we were met by one of our two drivers. He loaded our bags in and drove us to the consulate only for us to discover that the Russians were there only on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday! We were grateful we were to be here until Monday in case we needed more than one day to get the job done. It was a good thing!

Disappointed not to be able to take care of our visas first thing, we got back in the car and headed for Suzhou--an hour and a half to the west. We arrived in good order to find ourselves in Suzhou SIP where many, many foreign employees live in what seemed to us to be a lovely Orlando-like setting. The streets were clean, the apartments and houses really lovely and everything very different than the China we know, and love.

We were made to feel so at home in their lovely apartment that reminded us of our Vacation Village condo in Orlando. We had a wonderful guest room (thanks to 4-year-old Porter's being evicted to the bunk in Kallie's room). Kallie and Kaitlyn added to the fun. Kallie had her sixth birthday while we were there for which Julie provided beautifully with homemade cupcakes and great activities.

Her husband got home from a business trip the day after we arrived and we loved visiting with him to hear more about his business ventures. They are a wonderful couple who are full of goodness and we loved being their guests, eating Julie's yummy food, and being generally pampered. (I have to admit being a tiny bit jealous of her beautiful kitchen!)

After arriving we left almost immediately in a taxi to a custom shirt shop Julie recommended to us. John's shirts were getting pretty ratty and we figured getting some tailor-made white shirts for our temple mission in Germany for the price of shirts from the distribution center was a good idea. We found The Dragon and Phoenix shop in the old part of Suzhou in the walking-street area.

From there we sought for a China Mobile shop to try to recharge my phone which had gone dead. (It seems like that is a regular occurrence when we are out of town.) At China mobile we found we were at the wrong place but there we discovered a lovely employee who spoke a little English who had us follow her to the right place. We so often have been blessed by such kindness. She was wearing a new rage among the stylish girls--glass frames with no glass in them. Cute girl.

We love the Chinese pay-as-you-go approach to cell phones. It is a boon not to have to lock oneself to an American subscription plan. That is one thing China has over the good old U.S. of A.

Friday morning our new driver, Key, was at our door at 7:30 and we headed back into Shanghai for a grueling morning at the Russian consulate. We arrived shortly after they opened at 9:30 and were glad to find ourselves only 4th in line. After a half-hour wait we were ushered in to the visa section were we found ourselves now at the back of a room full of people. Many of them were there as visa couriers with stacks of Chinese passports, there to apply for visas for their clients. After some time I was finally at a window with all my materials in hand. I had carefully prepared to have everything needed. . . I thought. I was soon disabused of that impression when the clerk told me we had the wrong form (which I had gotten from theirwebsite!) She provided me with another and additional instructions about our needing this and that before sending me to the counter to refill out all the paper work by hand. John took the items we needed additional copies of and headed out to find some place to copy them. After an hour of severe writer's cramp I finally had the new forms filled out and John had returned with the copies. I headed back to the counter, jumping the line of Chinese to resubmit, only to be told that we still needed two copies of the Russian invitation letters. Back to the copy machine at the hotel next door and then back to the line for another wait.

The consulate is open only until 12:15 and we began to fear we'd never make it with all the delays. We also were wondering what we could have been thinking of to have chosen this route home! Finally though I handed in the last of our materials and was asked when we needed the visas. Since we couldn't get back to Xi'an without our passports, our need was "urgent." Urgent for the Chinese meant that day. Urgent for a foreigner meant Monday. Grateful that we had an afternoon flight Monday, I asked how early we could pick them up. They graciously arranged to have us come in the morning, though their usual policy was to pick up visas from 2:00 to 2:30--after we needed to be at the airport! After going out to rob a bank to cover the exorbitant costs for an "urgent" visa we had done all we could do until Monday morning. With some consternation we left our precious US passports in the hands of the Russians and called Key to pick us up.

With the afternoon open, we decided to have him drive us to Hai Ning and the leather factory market--the largest in China. We took a much needed nap while we were driven through lovely canal-riddled countryside two hours from Shanghai, south of Suzhou.

We have for some time wanted to find John a leather jacket as a casual coat and Hai Ning was the place to go. The market is huge, floor after floor, shop after shop of leather goods, purses, hats, coats. Of all those we found the one that spoke to us was a beautiful textured leather jacket sporting a 6,500 yuan price tag! Of course it was in one of the top designer shops. We walked away, came back, walked away again. Our sales girl had by then lowered the price to 3,000 but it was still way above our touch. Just before we were going to leave empty handed, we went back to look one last time and she said 1,500. I countered with 1,000 and we settled for 1,200--about $180. We handled over the dough and ran! Actually the Chinese are always delightful once a price has been agreed upon and she loved seeing John get his coat.

We were delighted with our purchase and with the bargaining--in good Chinese fashion--we went through to get it. It is part of the fun. We also grabbed a small leather computer bag for John's little Acer, also bargained down to a rock bottom price.

Then we met Key for our drive back to Suzhou. It was a wonderful day.
We arrived back just in time to join in the last few minutes of Kallie's birthday party and enjoyed an evening relaxing.


Saturday we had a driver until 2:00 so started the day by having him drive us to Tongli--an old Suzhou water town where we wandered the narrow streets along the canals.

Tongli is called the Chinese Venice and it was fun to see. Julie had recommended we get a rickshaw for a drive through the area, but we choose to walk and were glad we did.

In the afternoon we had our driver take us to the Suzhou pearl market to leave us there to explore on our own before arranging for a taxi to take us back. We had been to the pearl market in Guangzhou and had a ball there but Suzhou was something else again.

Three buildings of shop after shop of pearls (and other jewelry, I suppose--we never got past building one). It was an amazing adventure. We were only in the market for some blue-grey irregular pearls that I call "Levi pearls" so we were not the big spenders but it was a blast to look. Whatever you find and want, the clerks string and knot it for you on the spot. It was just fun to see it all. Poor John, what a good sport he was as we wandered from shop to shop.

Finally having worn both of us out we had one of the vendors arrange for a car to take us back to Suzhou SIP where we attempted to join our hosts at a barbecue at the home of one of the folks who had been loaning us their car and driver. The driver got us to the right part of Suzhou but had no idea where to go from there. We called Julie and she put the branch president (with his flawless Chinese) on the phone with the driver to guide him to the location where we met many of the branch members we would see again at Church the next day.

Sunday we attended the Suzhou branch and loved meeting with the members there. We enjoyed the spirit of the day with wonderful talks, classes, and visits. One of the couples we met were from St. Petersburg, Russia. it was fun to visit with Julianna and Peter who agreed to email us some ideas of what to see when we are in their home city.

We especially enjoyed a wonderful combined meeting for priesthood and RS where we were reminded of the opportunities to do family history on line. It was very motivating for me and John.

"Home" again to a lovely Sunday evening dinner and pleasant walk around a part of the lake close by their home was a nice way to spend the evening. The lake features a music and water show more spectacular than Las Vegas' Bellagio--Even from the balcony of the apartment it lit up the sky.

At 8:00 Monday morning our driver was there to take us back to the Russian consulate in hopes of getting our visas finally picked up. Thankfully everything went perfectly. By 10:00 we had our passports in hand with our visas in place. To celebrate we went to the Shanghai pearl market and knock off shops for a couple of hours before needing to head back to Pudong for our flight to Xi'an. It had been a wonderful trip and we were so grateful for the hospitality we enjoyed and to all our new friends in the branch there.

Despite our enjoyment of the luxuries of Suzhou, somehow it always feels like home to get back to Xi'an. We miss our funny ole town. We hurried to prepare for school the next day--easy for me since my oral kids were giving their mid-term presentation with the theme of "This I believe. . . "

We enjoyed our week of teaching and getting ready for Easter Sunday--Friday John and I were both asked to talk to round out the Easter program. It has been interesting to be in China for this Easter season since we have had none of the commercial distractions so prevalent at home at this time of the year--no sign of bunnies, chocolate eggs, marshmallow chicks, and Easter baskets. It has been nice to really focus only on the Savior, the Atonement and the Resurrection, and on our gratitude for Him.

It reminds us of how important it is to be grateful for all our blessings and each of you are numbered amount those blessings. Have a wonderful week.