Day One

Hello everyone:

Yesterday was our official DAY ONE in China - Beijing to be specific. I set up an elaborate travel blog site beforehand, but for some reason I can't get it activated, so will have to wait until I can badger Tony Winston for help…Also, the internet is very fussy over here. It may just be easier to let you know what's up through a daily email.

NOTE: The method of which I am having to send the photos to you will not be the top-notch quality which will happen in my eventual blog site...but until then these should be good enough.

Since I know you are all waiting with bated breath to find out how our trip is going so far, here goes:

Our flight on China Air (almost 13 hours) was uneventful, except for the end when it was REALLY bumpy. We checked into our hotel which is in the middle of all the action and after a pretty traditional Chinese Buffet dinner (there is NO WAY I'm NOT losing weight on this trip) we all went to bed. Most of us woke up bright eyed at 1am, and many of us straggled down for breakfast at 5:30am when the hotel buffet opened.

OK here is who is with us on this front leg of the CHINA trip known as The Great Wall Marathon group:

Cindy & Bill, Kathy & Frank Baxter, Dr. Dan Franklin, Stevie Gill (Bill's buddy from BC Law School), Dr. Ernie Prudente and his delightful wife Kate and their two very well behaved kids Kiera and Dylan, Denni, Tony, Peter Simon, and the Sound Body Sound Mind crew of Nathan-Alex-Pat-Ben.

It had rained last night and this morning the sun was shining, the skies were bright blue with not a cloud in the sky! How blessed are we!

First stop on our tour: The Summer Palace. Within this amazingly huge area there is a gigantic man-made lake, and mountains created out of the dirt that was dug up to build it. The Empress Dowager lived there from 1860 - 1910, and she was into #1 power and #2 her beauty. She was a concubine not known at all for her beauty, but was the favorite due to her singing, and the fact that she produced a son - the heir. She only rode in an automobile one time and refused ever since - she felt it was of utmost disrespect to have someone in position in "front" of her (ie the driver of the car!).  She imprisoned her son for over 10 years in order to grab the power. Instead of building a navy, she built a marble boat. We climbed tall towers and walked through painted tunnels.