Beijing Part 1

We made it to The Great Wall of China this weekend, but before I share the beauty of one of the world's 7 wonders, I have much to share! 

Beijing!! The city I didn't want to leave, and the city that also put us through the biggest trials we've had yet. 

Lets begin by the super affordable 13 hour train ride that we took over night. There are two options here in China to travel affordably that we know of so far. Slow train or fast train. The slow train is way affordable, so our group decided it would be worth the money to take the that one. Even if it meant a 9 hour difference. 
SO NOT WORTH IT!! 

After arriving in Beijing we were all starving. We were all so excited when we found McDonalds and decided to have lunch...except it was  a holiday and everything was closed!! 

We gathered the 22 people in our group and decided we should just head to our Hostel. Half of our group decided to take the subway and figure out how to get there. Our group decided Taxi was way better because we were all too starved and tired to figure out a subway system we didn't even understand. 

After a long line and dead chicken legs poking us from the people's luggage behind us, we got a taxi! We loaded our luggage, gave him the instructions and were even ready to bargain the price...until we realized no one had the instructions to the Hostel in Mandarin. Only English!! ): Since no one spoke Mandarin we put our charades to the test...still no luck. We finally called Kelly (our Chinese native) and had her give them the instructions and after 15 minutes a guy came, charged us a lot, took our money and we were on our way! During that time, we were all stressed so I urged everyone to say a prayer. 

We finally get to a pretty place and they stop the taxi and ask us to get out. We didn't see a hotel or hostel anywhere though. So we asked where it was, they kept saying we were there but  we refused to get out so we called Kelly, she told them we knew we weren't there so they got in the taxi and drove us somewhere else. Finally, we get to this really ghetto area, it was dirty, and scary looking....my anxiety started to kick in. 

They told us to get out and start unloading our luggage. I got so scared. People in our group were already tired, dehydrated, hungry and just trying to stay positive. I remember shouting out to the Lord "C'mon, we prayed! Help us get there PLEASE!". In the meantime 1 of the 3 taxis took all of the stuff out of one taxi and drove off. So now we were short a taxi and NOT in the right spot. As the other two taxis were getting ready to leave I remembered something Daniel (a guy in our group) told us. He said he heard from a Chinese native that if we take a picture of the ID card every taxi driver has, they treat us better because they know we can report them. I ran to one of the taxis and took a picture before he drove off. He got  so upset and wouldn't let me take it, he started yelling at me, tore the ID off and got out of the car. I told him I already had a picture of the other taxi we were in (in charades of course ha). He started arguing with me and I ran and told our group leader who was getting ready to let the other taxi leave. 

THEN!! Our prayer was answered. Out of nowhere we heard "do you need help?" in ENGLISH!! A cute Chinese girl who spoke perfect English and Mandarin came to the rescue! She translated everything to us and told the Taxi driver's we had paid too much money to be dropped off so far from our destination. Turns out the Taxi drivers understood where we wanted to go but didn't know where it was so they just wanted to ditch us. She looked up the address, helped them find it and we were on our way! 

We finally arrived in this cute little street, they told us to get out again and we didn't see a hotel. I argued with the angry man again as he kept telling me to erase the picture. Then a white woman walked by and I asked her if she spoke English, SHE DID! So she translated for us and helped us find our hostel. We were finally in the right spot!! 

The Hostel was so cute, we loved our room, the bed was amazingly comfortable and WE HAD AC!! 

I feel bad for demanding a quick answer to my prayer but I learned once again that he ALWAYS answers. We had to do all we could first and then He helped. I had a panic attack and had to take medicine when the angry taxi driver was yelling at me but right there the girl showed up! Its such a huge blessing to know that  even though the church isn't here in China, and people don't know who Jesus Christ is, He still knows them and He knows ME! He is watching over us and we feel his presence everywhere we go. I find so much comfort knowing that He and my dad are watching over Jordan and I (: 


I must go to bed now but tomorrow I will update what it was about Beijing that made me fall in LOVE!!! I seriously had a hard time saying goodbye to such a beautiful city! 

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