Today we went to the Great Wall. We took the gondola to the top of the wall and walked for about an hour across to a toboggan slide that you rode to the bottom of the mountain. It was pretty cool. Everyone did pretty good walking on the wall. We ate at a Jaozi (pronounced jout-za) restaurant, which is a dumpling type of dish that is filled with different things like meats and vegetables.
We brought with us to the wall two Chinese nationals. Both of them are believers and they shared with us their story of life in China as a Christian. I was humbled as they shared of the persecution that they face and yet the boldness with which they choose to talk to others about Christ. The lady was telling us of how around 20 people had come to the Lord during a long trip she had recently taken on either a bus or a train...I don't remember which. She shared how house church leaders were being persecuted, but that things seemed to be getting better and tolerance of these groups was coming. Throughout the day with them, they did everything they could to serve us. We came to serve them and they ended up serving us.
A few funny things...the team had it's first chance to barter at the markets and that seemed to overwhelm some of them. When we shop we are not use to having people grab us and pull us into their store, but they is the norm here. Speaking of being grabbed...many of us have been pulled into pictures today with the Chinese people who are visiting the wall. I guess it is a big deal for them to take home pictures with Westerners. Many of the people we saw would not have had much interaction with people like us so it was a big deal to them. We found it funny!
In the coming highlights you will notice that I have not included photos of any Chinese nationals with us. That is to protect them.
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