Thursday, May 22, 2008

May 22

Today found us on a "cliff-notes" tour of Shanghai. Our guide, Ian, and his driver arrived at our hotel at 9:00 a.m. The first stop on the day's tour was to the Temple of the Jade Buddha. The Jade Buddha holds particular significance as it has not been damaged in any of the wars and conflicts of China's history. While at the Temple of the Jade Buddha, we watched a portion of a blessing ceremony being conducted by a dozen or so Buddhist monks. The ceremony was complete with chanting, incense burning, cymbal clanging, drum beating, and just like at home the drum beating monk checking his watch to see how much longer he had to endure!

The balance of the day we spent at the Bund, the waterfront, and Old Shanghai. We also had a two hour tour of the Shanghai Museum. Tomorrow we leave Shanghai and fly to Yichang to begin the Yangtze River cruise portion of our journey.

God's peace and love,
pb

1 comment:

Patty O said...

Hey guys!

We are thinking about you all and we are so excited for you. Every step of your journey reminds us of our own when we adopted Rachel. When you get to Jianxi, you will likely visit a large pagoda pavilion there. We have a great photo of us standing in front of the pagoda with Rachel in a snugly and then, one of Peggy and Rachel together just 3 years ago on our homeland tour, just a few days before we hooked up with you both in Xi'an. . .

Our love and prayers are with you all as you come together. God is good~
Love,
Patty