In the summer of 2001, my family visited Beijing, China! It was a once-in-a-lifetime sort of vacation, and it was awesome. The scale of things, the condition of the city, the dry heat, it was all a new adventure. The palaces stretched so far it was unbelievable. The Great Wall was truly that. The modernization was a horrible juxtaposition, yet the newer part of the city wasn't totally ugly. It was filled with beautiful people, many of whom have probably never heard of Jesus Christ.

I discovered that I really do like Chinese food after all; I must have been eating at the wrong restaurants until now. American Chinese food I already adore, but with the exception of a breakfast of chicken fried rice in Macau, I'd never liked Chinese food that was actually from China! But almost everything we were served there, from the authentic Peking duck and the posh hotel restaurant food to the cheap roadside restaurant on the way to the wall, was absolutely delicious. I wish I could have the Chinese and American versions of Chinese food in one place, the first for when I want a good real meal, the second for when I want something fast and fake and utterly delicious. Even the tea was good, and I don't generally like green (or any other color) tea here.

More memories may appear over time, along with some of my multiple rolls of pictures.