The Great Wall of China

Today we went to the Great Wall. We took a taxi to a section of the
Great Wall that they call Mu Tian Yu. It is about 100 km outside
Beijing, so it took a little over an hour to get there. There were not
a ton of tourists, and we had amazing views! The hike up & down the
wall was about 3.5 km long and we went as far as you can go (Tower
23)!and walked all the way back! It took us 3 hours!! The Terrain was
rough, but oh so worth it!!!

Macau & Southern China

We have had a blast in China so far! We spent a few days in the
southern part of the country - which was SUPER clean and everyone
friendly and as helpful as they could be!

We also took a day trip to the Island of Macau. Very quaint little
place, it was owned by the Portugese for a few centuries, but now it's
governed by the rather large Casinos. It looks like Las Vegas!

There were also typhoon warnings the day we were headed north - we are
so glad we were able to get out before the weather got too crazy!

Here are some highlights:

Banquet Dinner

Sunday after the program the Hong Kong Branch organized a large dinner
banquet full with live music, theocratic history, folk dance & a
cultural show! It was spectacular! This was all following a 10 course
menu!! Yummmm

Hong Kong Special Convention Day 2 & 3

We had the amazing privilege to watch 570 symbolize their dedication
on Saturday!! There were many more who weren't able to make it to the
venue because of lack of $$ or inability to obtain a visa :(
Peak attendance was over 19,500!
It was an awesome experience!

Special Convention Hong Kong Day 1

What an awesome day!! We sat in the English section today and there
were about 3,500. We had over 16,400 total attendance and they are
expecting it to
go over 20,000 tomorrow!
There are many that come from Japan & Korea to help out! The majority
in the section of the 'language of the people' are students...

Hong Kong Island

Well, finally made it to Hong Kong!

There was a group of about 30 friends waving at us and calling out to
us when we arrived at the airport! Good thing we remembered to wear
our lapel cards.

It was so exciting to see all those bright smiling faces! We met
several families from the Philippeans, a couple in the circuit work
there too, and the rest locals.

We didn't even have a chance to pull out the camera, when we were
wisked away to our host familys home.

This was our view from the double-decker bus, looking out across
Victoria Harbor is Hong Kong Island.

I don't even know what day of the week it is, I just know we're TIRED.

Stay tuned....

*seatabs*

The longest 16 hours of my life....

Hey everybody, I know you've hearing about this trip for what seems like the past year...

But finally the day has arrived!  We are on our way to Asia!!

We left Brooklyn at 6:45am and it's now 4:00pm and yet some how we ended up one time zone further away from our destination than when we began our journey!

Chicago isn't that bad if your actually out on the town, but this 3-1/2 hour layover, exiting the domestic terminal and re-entering at the International Terminal which was just about a mile away, going through security yet again is a tad frustrating.

That's ok, here's home for the next 16+ hours!!!

Hope we can show you a little of Asia & abroad through our eyes!!

.....eventually