We made it into China. It’s been quite an adventure getting here, but I’ll try to fill you in on the past few days. Saturday some of us met up with Jesse Garner
, an old TBarM friend who is living and teaching in China. Jesse was a great help as he gave us a tour around Hong Kong. After a meal at the Hard Rock Cafe Hong Kong, we visited the history museam, the peak overlooking Hong Kong, saw the light show, rode up the world’s longest escalators, and shopped briefly in a shopping district. What a great day to experience Hong Kong and hang out with a friend!
Sunday morning we left our hostel and after about a 1 1/2 mile hike with all our gear we got on a 3 hour bus to take us across the Hong Kong border and into China. The bus dropped us off in a really large city, where we took taxis to catch our 36 hour train deep into China. The train station was crazy. I have never seen that many Chinese people in one place. We were much the spectacle, being the only white people and having really huge packs.
We waited a couple hours before we got on our sleeper train. I got had a little claustrophobic attack as we entered to train and found out the tight quarters we would be living in for the next day and 1/2. There were six of us in an area with 3 walls that opened up to the walkway and we slept on bunks that were 3 beds high. After settling on my middle bunk where I would sleep the next 2 nights, things weren’t too bad.
The time on the train really passed quickly since we got to sleep twice. The one day was spent playing spades…pretty much the whole day. Nothing like being the only Americans on a train full of Chinese people. And here’s a tip, never walk on the railroad tracks in China because the bathrooms are holes in the bottom of the train.
This morning we arrived about 8am at the train station, where we got in a taxi to take us to another taxi that took us on a 2 hour ride through the snow covered mountains. Let’s just say that I miss wearing one layer of clothing, as opposed to the 5 I have on right now. It is going to be very cold the next few weeks, especially when we go nearer to Tibet.
Tomorrow we are actually doing the race portion of the trip around the village we are in right now. All the teams thought this would be better so we didn’t have to spend our one day in Hong Kong racing around and not enjoying the sites. We will be in a small hotel the next couple nights and then break up to head out to smaller villages for ministry. Yea snow and cold weather!
