1. The Airport in Seattle on our way to China!

2. Here we go!

3. We arrive in Beijing!

4. The Beijing Hotel – Chinese Bridge for American Schools

5. Our meeting room with MANY plants and flowers!

6. Beautiful sculptures made from Jade. They even have a MD crab!

7. What I thought was a toy in the hotel room was really a gas mask!

8. How the hotel staff dressed for the conference.

9. Gates and guards to protect everything.

10. Beautiful buildings with cool roofs!

11. Beijing Opera Costume at the Exploratorium Museum.

12. Dress of the many Ethnic Minorities.

13. Amazing Jade Buddha.

14. The temples are beautiful and VERY ornate.

15. The toilets are VERY different from ours!

16. The Lama temple. People burn incense as they pray.

17. Everything at the Temple is amazing and very old.

18. The Confucius Temple and a man in the street who looked like Confucius!

19. Cars just like ours had Chinese writing!

20. The food was so plentiful!

21. Middle and High School Students perform for us. They were AMAZING!

22. Their singing was ALMOST as good as the Travilah Chorus!

23. KFC and McDonald’s in China!

24. We visit the VERY steep Great Wall of China!

25. The Great Wall was windy and cold.

26. It was an amazing place!

27. Who knew it was so steep or so crowded? So many people!!

28. The Great Wall of China is over 4000 miles long. It is the longest human made structure in the world!

29. Couples lock padlocks on the Great Wall to show they will be together forever.

30. There are many things to buy at the Wall. This man wrote on one for our school.

31. Making Cloisonné is VERY difficult!

32. After 7 layers, the vases are polished and sold.

33. The Chinese people wanted us to not feel homesick, so gave us french fries!

34. Our flight to Kunming. We went out on the tarmac like we used to long ago in the US.

35. To save electricity, you must put your hotel key in the slot for lights. When you leave, you can’t leave the lights on because you take your key!

36. Kunming is “Eternal Springtime” and is known for its flowers.

37. MANY people are on the streets on bikes weaving through the traffic. This woman could balance on the back in dress shoes!

38. The first school we visited was a beautiful high school.

39. The principal spoke and then we exchanged gifts.

40. There is no heat in the school, and the students wear their jackets all day. Each grade level wears their graduation year and is color coded.

41. All of the students love to practice their English and have English names.

42. This was a very fancy school with beautiful grounds.

43. Average class size, with one teacher, is 70- 100!

44. Kids are in school K-HS from 7 am to 6 pm, five days/week until their last year when they add Saturday!

45. We visited a middle school where many kids live. They were having PE.

46. The elementary school children greeted us in traditional ethnic costumes.

47. We saw their library and a traditional tea ceremony.

48. The classrooms are equipped to cook and serve tea!

49. The youngest children showed us how they made fruits and veggies from clay.

50. The older elementary students painted Beijing Opera masks on faces and fingernails!

51. They sang and played instruments for us.

52. We visited Green Lake. The Government feeds the seagulls to keep them there.

53. The market at the lake sells EVERYTHING!

54. I realized one can buy just about anything on the streets!

55. We visited the Forbidden City!

56. We saw the Emperor’s HUGE home.

57. A “turtle” for Maryland and a real gold urn!

58. The Stone Forest

59. We had a blast in China and even found some pizza on our last night! What a great trip!