Well, here's the deal.  I like using the photos, but we can't figure out how to make them move around in relation to the text.  Click and drag ain't cuttin' it, and the help button isn't helping.  Any of you who know blogspot, please advise.  In the mean time, please try to follow along.

Amy, I was feeling bad about not sending you any photos of food.  I'll have a lot more to show you later, but this is at least a start.  This lunch was the best food we have had so far.  You can't see all of it, but it was delicious, despite the fact that most of the older kids and teens are sticking to their Sprite and white rice diet.

As to the cuties in pink and green, those are two of the kids we met at the CHI orphanage.  We visited there Monday morning and got a tour.  We all played with the kids, then helped some volunteers clean.  I think the workers are doing a good job, but it still makes you wish you could scoop them up and bring them home to families that could love them forever.   

From there we met up with the rest of the group that was at a rug making factory.  All of the girls got a chance to tie a few knots, and the parents got the chance to buy a rug.  It certainly made me appreciate the time and talent that goes into a hand knotted, silk rug.    

                                                                                           

                

After lunch at a fantastic restaurant, Chris ran over to KFC with Jesse so she could have fries on her birthday.

Next we headed for pedicab rides through a Hutong.  I thought a pedicab was where they paint your toenails while you ride, but it turns out it's a little seat pulled by a guy on a bicycle.  We're still not sure about the exact definition of a hutong, but we rode down tiny alleys and a few small streets, filled with homes, businesses, people, and quite a variety of smells.  It was a holiday yesterday, so the center of the hutong was full of people and had a kind of carnival atmosphere.

We ended our Beijing tourist stuff with Tienamin Square.  We got a bit of history and looked around for a few minutes, but mostly we were there so the kids could fly kites.  They had us fly them down by Mao's mausoleum, where Mao's preserved body lies in a see through coffin.  Thousands visit him 5 days per week.  Eww.

A very tired, pathetic group of people was later seen boarding an overnight sleeper train.  Although I could have held hands with the woman sleeping across from me, it wasn't too bad.  We did all arrive in Xian sort of feeling like we needed one of those showers they give you after you have been exposed to nuclear material, but it was an experience.

I am realizing how long this post is getting, so I'll speed up.  Xian is the only city in china that still has it's city wall intact.  They have marathons up on top, where it has a nine mile perimeter.  We went to a mosque, a buddhist temple, and had a meal with about 19 different kids of dumplings.  Don't worry, Amy, I took pictures.  The kids got to learn a little calligraphy, and Chris took them all to KFC tonight for supper.

We have mastered the squatty potties, adjusted to drinks without ice, managed to cross the roads without injury (so far), and learned how to bargain in another language.  On to the next challenge!