Day Three - Church and Cloisonne

Went to church at Beijing International Christian Church and found Ross, a friend and past coworker. Michael, today's guide, was unable to attend with us as the church requires a foreign passport to be able to get in. Since Michael is native to China he does not have a foreign passport.

After church we went to another Chinese restaurant and had yet another great meal. We trekked up three flights of stairs and after much discussion between our guide and the waitress had to go back down one flight. In the meantime Cathy took a break in one of the older chairs that would have carried the emperor or empress. I got to have my favorite, dumplings, so am very full and happy.

After a short nap we will be off to visit the artist who makes cloisonne.

The artist, Zhonghua Chen, was amazing. She opened her home to three strangers by having slippers at the door for us to slide our feet into after removing our shoes. We were shown into a spare room that she used for her studio. She showed us some of her works and also how she created the gold filigree design that the minerals are filled into. Next we went into her kitchen to a table full of bowls filled with a colored mineral and a bit of water. She showed us how to use the special tool to scoop up the water/mineral and tap it into the place of our choice. The hardest part was deciding on what color to put where. But we did it and will have a masterpiece once finished. Zhonghua will bake the end result and place in a picture frame for us, hopefully by the time we are ready to leave.

Michael will take us to the orphanage tomorrow which we are very excited about. He doesn't know for sure what we will be doing but he thinks it will be playing with the children. Be still my heart. We joked today about buying some toy baby dolls and arriving home with them in our arms letting Kevin and Jim think we brought some babies back. Well we thought it was funny at the time.