The girls sat near the front of the bus as we left the Spirit Way...there was much shrieking and an occasional "Oh my God!" from Mark as cars and buses narrowly missed us. It took several hours to cross all the ring roads in Beijing and travel across the city back to our hotel. You can only turn right...about the only road rule in existence, as far as I could tell.

Ming Tomb

Offerings to the Emperor. Lei-lei said the Chinese were particularly close to this emperor because he was of Han ethnic descent...80% of Chinese are Han today.

Thirteen Ming emperors are interred nearby.

We amost walked into this spider hanging from a tree at the Ming Tomb.

The Olympic rings in a field being cleared for 500 new hotels built for the games. 300 are now finished.

Going home from school

Street vendors

Jade factory

Jade sculpture

Peter had an interesting conversation with one of the Chinese managers. He started work 2 weeks ago and missed his family in Xi'an. He didn't know when he'd be allowed to see them. He told Peter that he "must be a wealthy man to be so polite."

The pollution was so bad in Beijing that you could often look directly at the sun, even in the middle of the day.

A Chinese teen was trying to talk to Brita. Our Jade museum guide translated..."You are very beautiful." The teens wanted to know if Brita had ever ridden a bike! She had so much fun with them...definitely one of her most special moments in China.

Buses were overpacked with people.

Bikes and cars in night traffic

We were hearing on the CNN news in our hotel about the earthquake in Pakistan killing 30,000.

Heading to the plane for Xi'an