This morning we first visited the Liaoning Provincial Museum.

Next we went to the Zhaoling Tomb (also known as the North Tomb).

The huge Beiling Park houses the tomb of Abahai (1592-1643), the son of Nurhachi (leader of the Manchus), and his wife, Empress Borjijit. One of the largest and best-preserved of China’s imperial mausoleums, the North Tomb was built in 1643, the year of the Emperor’s death. The layout of the complex is typical of imperial Chinese tombs and is accessed through Zhenghong Gate to the south.

This is one of several stone animals that are along each side of the walk leading to the entrance of the tomb area. This is the mother lion because her paw is on a baby. If it was the father lion its paw would be on a ball representing the world.

The camel is another animal that was along both sides of the walk going to the tomb. I put this in because it is one of the things that Big Bird as in “Big Bird In China” has to find on his journey to find the Phoenix.

Upon going through this stone gate you are supposed to act reverent.  Right…that was going to happen…not with our crew!

This compound was also used for sacrifices and other rituals besides being a burial place for the emperor. During celebrations they had guards that would guard the tomb area. We also learned that these 3 doors were used by different people.  The right door was for the emperor and empress, the middle door was for “spirits” as in ghosts to enter and the left door was for officials to enter.  The entire area inside these doors was surrounded by a wall that you could walk around.

Here we are walking along the top of the wall.

Here are several views from the top of the wall into the inner courtyard of the compound.

This is the burial mound.

Our kids on top of the wall with the courtyard buildings in the background.

Eliana kept asking me why I was taking pictures of this tree.  I just thought it was a really cool tree.

I like this picture of Zane & Eliana on top of the wall just before we go down the very icy steps.

Here is a view of one of the man made lakes that are all through the park.  They were partially frozen.  Eliana of course wanted to go out on the lake but we vetoed that idea quickly.

Zane was a little naughty on the way out and jumped a rail.

One of the very best things for me has been meeting fellow Christians here in China. I knew they were here and I knew there were lots of them however, it is not always easy to find them. This trip we have had several encounters.  First, our guide Steve asked if we were Christian, this was after I wore a cross one day. I said yes and asked if he was.  Sadly he is not. He indicated he is a member of the Communist party and they do not believe in anything.  Our next encounter came at Starbucks when Winnie, one of the girls who works there, came up and asked me if I was a Christian. When I told her yes, she said that she had found many adoptive parents are Christian. We had a nice conversation about Christianity. She was amazed to learn that Doug and I are both from Christian families.  She learned about Christ from an English speaking person who traveled here to China to share the Good News. She told me that she goes to a church near her house here in Shenyang. Tonight was the coolest though. We went to a restaurant that is apparently either owned by Christians or most of the workers there are Christian. I felt a great vibe as soon as we walked in and knew why very shortly. Right by the door was a scroll type picture with Jesus depicted as the good shepherd, going up the stairs I noticed the fish symbol and then I saw a display of carved wood crosses for sale. I was able to buy one of them on the way out. It has something carved on it in Chinese and I asked Steve our guide what it said.  He told me it said “follow the Lord”. I figured it was something like that and wanted to make sure that he got to translate. Along the walls I also saw lots of photos that looked like workers on a mission trip(s). They appeared to be helping with reconstruction. In one, it appeared that a man was possibly reading from a Bible. Later I asked Steve about these too.  He said that the employees of the restaurant had gone to Gansu province to help victims of an earthquake. I asked about the man reading and he indicated that it said under this picture that he was reading from the Bible.  I have been praying for over a year that our son might have some Christian influence in his life. Maybe he has. I won’t know until we return home and a new friend I met, who is a Chinese Christian, has a chance to talk to Zane. I don’t trust our guide to ask such a question. I can’t wait to see what else God has in store for us on this trip!

We were getting ready to leave for breakfast this morning when we received a call on Skype. It was one of Zane’s former orphanage and boarding school buddies named Andon (Guo Tao) who was adopted last November and now lives in Idaho.

I hate that we were so rushed for time because those two guys were laughing and carrying on and having a great time. My smile was almost as big as Zane’s.

After breakfast, we visited the Shenyang Imperial Palace. On the way there, we passed this storefront which was interesting.

The Shenyang Imperial Palace is the only existing royal palace in China outside of the Forbidden City in Beijing. The main structure of the palace was built in 1625 and finished in 1636.

Covering an area of more than 60,000 square meters (about 71,760 square yards), the Shenyang Imperial Palace is one twelfth the size of the Forbidden City in Beijing. The palace consists of more than 300 rooms, formed around 20 courtyards.

After lunch, we came back to the hotel room for a couple of hours

Yesterday at Wal-Mart we bought some movies (which we already have back home) that speak English but have Chinese subtitles. Eliana wanted to watch The Mummy. When I put the movie in the DVD player, a menu came up written in Chinese so I put Zane to work on the electronic translator to let me know what was on the screen.

He must have loved the movie because he hardly budged the entire time it was playing.

One of the few gripes I have about this netbook is that even with the speaker volume turned all the way up, it’s hard to hear.

We just participated in a really cool event.

Eliana’s first grade teacher installed Skype on her classroom laptop last week and Eliana just had a video chat with her class at school. The chat went so well that we’ll do it again next Wednesday when we’re in Guangzhou.

By the way, our Skype account is henderson.home.online in case any of you would like to chat. Just remember that we are 13 hours ahead of the east coast.

OK Chris. Queue the Hallelujah Chorus.

Escalators, baby.

Shopping faces.

They have stuff to buy going up and down and all around. For the discriminating shopper on the move.

This is a lazy day. And lazy is a good thing.

The orphanage director listed on Zane’s certificate of adoption has retired so our guide has been busy today getting the name changed to the new orphanage director on another certificate of adoption. He has been busy but we haven’t.

We slept a whole extra hour this morning and didn’t have to get up until 7:00 am!

After breakfast, we came back to the room and spent some time talking with family members back home on Skype.

Before lunch, we bravely decided to venture out a bit on our own.

Just down the street from our hotel, about a city block away, is one of many squares in Shenyang. In the center of this square is a huge statue of Chairman Mao Zedong. The people at the base of the statue represent the many different classes of people - including workers, students and soldiers - who help Mao rise to power.

The wind was blowing fiercely and it was bitterly cold. Poor Zane kept holding his hands over his ears so we knew he was cold. Since his coat doesn’t have a hood, we went to a clothing store and tried to find him a hooded coat. Think we could find one? Of course not.

The fashion police were out in force. I was carrying Karys and God forbid that her pants hiked up a little showing her lower calves. We were standing at an intersection waiting to cross the street and one younger lady came right up, tapped me on the arm and pointed to Karys’ legs. I pulled her pants legs down and could tell that this lady and another were staring at us just waiting for her pants to creep up again. I almost did it on purpose.

We went into KFC for a quick lunch and another younger lady pointed out the obvious. Grrrrr…

Before going out again, Carmi has put some tights on Karys so we’re not thought to be stupid negligent American parents.

We were supposed to visit Russian Street in Dalian this morning. Actually we did. Unfortunately it was raining with a dash of snow thrown in for good measure.

The umbrellas that we had to borrow from the Ramada were pitiful so we called it quits after walking only half the street. And it was yucky enough that I didn’t even bring my camera out for fear of getting it wet and rendering it useless.

So what does a family of five do in China with time to kill when it’s nasty outside? They go shopping in an underground mall. And would any of you ladies who know Carmi care to hazard a guess as to what she purchased?

Anybody?

I’ll give you a hint: it wasn’t a pocketbook which only leaves one other sure bet.

That’s right. It was shoes. Not one pair but two.

I’m still trying to find the kiddos some Nintendo DS games but no luck so far. If only I was looking for a mobile phone.

After lunch, we made it to the train station in time to start boarding but only after Karys did the pee-pee dance.

Oh how I dreaded this 4 hour and 45 minute train ride. I think we all did. But the good news is that the trip only lasted 4 hours. Don’t know what happened to the other 45 minutes.

With the exception of possibly 5 minutes, Eliana and Zane played Super Mario Brothers on the DS for the entire trip. I couldn’t believe the battery packs lasted that long with time to spare. Go Nintendo! You were a lifesaver.

When the train stopped at the Shenyang station, Steve was one of the first passengers off followed closely by Eliana and Zane. Carmi, Karys and I, on the other hand, were the last ones off. As we neared the exit, passengers were beginning to board the train and I could tell they were in a hurry to get past the 3 of us in that narrow aisle. Carmi was in front with Karys between us and the first couple of incoming passengers bounced Carmi around a little. I yelled to her, “knock ‘em out of the way!”. The ol’ gal lowered her shoulder, I latched onto Karys’ coat and we went bulldozing.

It felt so good to be back to the hotel. The Intercontinental is very, very nice. With the exception of the White Swan suite in 2007, this is the nicest room we’ve been in so far during our 3 adoption trips.

They gave us the same room we left just 2 days earlier. We’re all looking forward to settling in as we don’t have to leave until Monday.

The 3 kiddos were about to gnaw our legs off because they were so hungry. Instead of going out, Steve and I ran down the block to a Kentucky Fried Chicken and brought back a couple of big family-sized bucket meals. It was a greasy mess but a welcome switch from the Chinese food of late.

After dinner, Carmi and I were kind of hankerin’ for Starbucks. Well guess what? There’s one right next to the KFC.

Carmi and I bought a coffee, the kids had a hot chocolate and each one of us also had a cheesecake. We don’t have to worry about buying Zane another hot chocolate. I wish I had a picture of the face that poor boy made. He wasn’t real crazy about the dessert he had either. I guess he’s not accustomed to sweets.

As we relaxed, a young lady working for Starbucks walked sheepishly up to Carmi and I heard the employee ask, “Excuse me. Are you a Christian?”

Carmi said, “Yes. Are you?”

The young lady smiled really big and said, “Yes.”

The two talked for a bit and when we were walking out I asked Carmi why this young lady suspected that we were Christians. The young lady told Carmi that most of the adoptive parents she encountered were Christian.

What a nice end to our day.

When we returned to the room and finally got the kids ready for bed, they were all asleep in maybe 2 minutes.

Shenyang, it’s good to see you again.