Back from Beijing

I know that I have neglected everyone for almost a week, but the adjustment coming home was difficult. A 13 hour time change really messes up your sleep! Needless to say, I am a little under the weather. Although I have been back in the country for 6 days now.. I still wanted to share a few images from our last day in Beijing. 

We had to make a last shopping trip at the U.S.A. house. The only problem was, we weren't quite sure where it was.... pretty much like everywhere else we went. We took the subway to what we thought was close... pretty much NOT! It ended up being quite the walk, especially for the last day. BUT, I had to remind myself of my previous post as I complained about the heat and my exhausted feet.... so I kept my eyes open and grabbed some interesting shots.

I am starting to think this "stairs to nowhere" is something I need to pay attention to... does it mean something? Or maybe it's stairs to somewhere.. and if I work hard I will get there... ? Hmm.

Another interesting old bike.
I found it quite intriguing that there are so many old men that just have chairs they sit along the sidewalks.

Thank you for traveling with me through Beijing. I will have a gallery up on my website that will be some of my fav's from Mexico and Beijing. Feel free to let me know if something grabs your eye that you feel you must have :)

I have much more to blog..stay tuned!

Learning Experiences

There have been several new learning experiences for me in the past couple of days. If you really tune in, everyday something will come to light that could be in divine destiny. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and as we go down this path, God brings us places to learn something. For the past two days, everyone's patience has been seriously tested as we tried to make our way through Beijing. The process of getting a taxi, getting them to know where we need to go, the major communication barrier, and the actual ride take what seems like forever. Not to mention, by the time we get a cab, we are so hot from the walk, the people and the frustration that everyone is irritated. Well... on the surface, that is what you will see. I believe God tests us to see if we can push ourselves to make the most out of every situation. As we rode in the taxi for an HOUR to the Nike hospitality to eat for our first meal of the day at 5pm, everyone was hot, irritated, tired and hungry. I nodded off for a while, only to realize that we were STILL DRIVING!!! AHHH! Would this cab ride ever end?? But then I realized that as I was frustrated, I was missing this amazing local part of Beijing that the driver was going through. This was not the tourist area, but amazing for photos. I felt like God was saying,"Wake up, Jamie... you're missing it!" So for the rest of the ride I hung out the window grabbing every moment I could. 

Lesson learned: While your focusing on your disappointments and frustrations, something great is passing you by. Wake Up!

Last night, as well as tonight, we headed out to watch track and field. There have been some major upsets for the U.S. It was heart breaking to watch as the favorites missed a medal or even finals. 
A shot going through the local area. Just incase you don't know... many people ride bikes here... like with traffic and everything!
Love this shot.
As we went through a security line to get into the Stadium, this little girl peeked over at me. Maybe it had something to do with my paparazzi lens I had on at the time ;)
For those of you who do not follow track.. keep an eye out for this story as I am positive it will be in the papers or on the news regarding the Olympics. Tonight was one of the hardest things I have seen and would test me if I were competing. Wallace Spearman placed 3rd for a bronze medal in the Men's 200M. He was not favored to place as far as I know. As the top 3 places did a victory lap around the field, his was the most memorable. He ran up to Usain Bolt, (who broke Michael Johnson's world record!) picked him up as they cheered and laughed together. As he carried the american flag on his back... his excitement lit him up. As the victory lap came to an end, there was a message on the screen saying he was disqualified. Shani explained that it would have been for stepping on the lines as he ran. No matter what, this is going to be such a test for him. How disappointing!!! I pray that he finds a way to look out the window and push past this.

I climbed the Great Wall of China!

Let me start off by saying... thank you to everyone that has been following my travel experience to China. I LOVE comments as it makes me feel like someone out there somewhere is listening. I appreciate you taking time out to find out what I am up to, our check out my work.

Today was our second day with our private tour. By the way, private tours are the way to go. I couldn't imagine sitting on a huge bus with 50 hot and sweaty strangers, and trying to budge your way to the front to hear about the history of each site. Our experience has been great thus far. We began our tour at the copper factory where they HAND MAKE copper vases, statues and more. The coolest part of the tour was that we got to see, step by step, how they were made. As we walked through the halls, I peered in each doorway to take in my entire surroundings. I felt like I was in an old, old building that would be some kind of museum in the U.S. With my camera attached to my hip, I photographed almost every step I took as each one got more interesting. Everywhere I turned I found something new to capture.

There are many steps in the process of making each piece. What an experience to be able to walk through and watch them paint these copper pieces.


As we made our way into our next stop at the Ming Tombs we t0 make sure to follow certain instructions according to the Chinese superstitions. In order to let the past emperors that are buried here know that we were just paying a visit, we had to pass through a certain gate stepping with our right foot first and saying, "Hello, we are just here for a visit". This ensured that we would not be staying there. (Men had to step in with their left foot) Before we left, we had to walk through the same gate, the same way and say goodbye. We also had to make sure that we did not take any bad spirits with us on our way out. To get rid of them before we passed the gate, we could stomp our feet or do a little dance. We danced as a group :)
Stairs to heaven?

Next stop was the great wall. Nothing needs to be said except for breath taking.
I climbed to the top! Ok... so I took a cable ride up most of the way.. but I did climb a ton of stairs and flat slopes that were at a unreal angle. 
We finished the night with a chinese acrobat show. This was a quick shot I took before they told me not to take any pictures. I love these types of shows. Not quite Cirque de Soliel.. but it was a very entertaining show.
Tomorrow will be another shopping day and track at night. Thanks for tuning into "Jamie in Beijing!" :)