A crowd gathered at the Spokane International Airport Friday the 27th to

welcome the team back from China.

Grandkids waited for Grandmas, spouses waited for spouses,

kids waited for parents, parents waited for daughters, and sponsors waited for princesses.

And right on time, the team emerged and were greeted with hugs smiles.  Much needed after 20 hours of traveling.

So many stories to tell.

Thanks to everyone who followed the team on the BIG CHINA ADVENTURE.

They appreciate your interest, support and encouragement.

When you get the chance, be sure to ask them questions about the trip. 

Their answers may surprise you.

We Say Our Goodbyes

As I write this, the team has since boarded their plane for home! 

If you would like to met them at the airport the arrival time is

Friday at 3:59pm on flight AS2506 in Concourse C.

Below are some pictures from their last day in Jilin.

A shout out to Pounder's Jewelry in Spokane for their contributions to the Lilac Court!

Visiting with Jilin royalty

Liberty Lake Mayor Peterson toasting the Vice Mayor of Jilin.

Any guesses at what this says?

Princess Hannah and Lisa in their hats.

Tuesday & Wednesday in Jilin

After a great meal on Monday with leadership from Jilin City, we knew we would spend the next two days touring the city and enjoying what it has to offer. Again we ate breakfast at the hotel buffet which is really excellent. Honestly, I have to admit that this hotel is spectacular. I knew the Langland and Beijing ones were good, but with Jilin being a place that doesn't host a lot of foreign tourists, I really expected this one to be smokey, hard beds, traditional Chinese breakfast, construction outside the window, and noisy and hot. This is the best hotel of the bunch. The rooms are huge, the shower is still in full view of the room, the breakfast is incredible, the rooms are clean, the mattresses are a bit rough due to how firm they are, but Hal guaranteed that he would have Northwest Bedding remedy that for us. 

We had our usual team briefing at 9:00 to prepare for the day and off we went. In the morning we went to a famous mountain in Jilin City that overlooks the city. Like many of the famous mountains, there were tons of people, lots of stares, coke and ice cream vendors, and heat and humidity. Though it's not as blistering as Beijing, it's still really warm. At the top of the mountain, maybe a 25 minute hike, is a Buddhist temple similar to those throughout China. As we continue to observe Chinese culture, its interesting to visit one and see how some of the traditions have permeated into the culture. From there we headed to a Korean BBQ. It was a huge buffet with little BBQ grills in the middle of the table. I think this was one of the favorite lunches as people got to get their own food, drinks, and dessert. I know my oldest daughter would have absolutely loved it!

During the afternoon we split up. The girls took their chaperones and Christine to a local high school where they joined about 40 students from the states who have spent time at a two week language program in Jilin. They learned a traditional paper cutting technique, and then then shared a bit about Spokane and Lilac. 

The rest of us went to two places. The first was a museum of the Manchu people. China is comprised mostly of Han Chinese and has about 55 recognized minority groups. Though most live in SW China, the Manchu people are unique to this area. After that we went to a park along the river. Cool place. We spent most of our time watching parents and grandparents with the children playing to water fountains, and streams. We then joined our girls and went to another hot pot dinner. This one was buffet and was much better than the one in Langfang....but blistering hot inside. You could always find our team huddled in front of the air conditioner or in line for another kabob of chicken heads. After we got back to the hotel, Danielle, our host, arranged a time at the massage place nearby. I know that doesn't sound good with all the news in Spokane, but this one is particularly good and clean. I think $12 for an hour massage is a pretty good deal no matter where you go.

Today, we again pulled out at 9:00 and headed to Songhua Lake, which is the backwaters of the dam on Songhua River which flows through the town. Not quite the Coeur d Alene resort as the boat is just pulled up on the rocky shore with two 2 x 8 planks to walk up. It was beautiful and similar to our own city. 

We then had lunch at a local place that had some pretty interesting choices...warm bean curd custard, chicken head platters, and soggy green beans. Some was good but it was a good experience at local cuisine. After that we got an opportunity to visit a state run orphanage briefly. This was a fairly new 6 story building that was a social welfare institute housing seniors also. Though there were supposedly 70 kids there, we only saw about 15 special needs kids. It all looked great but but when you've seen many, many orphanages, you see things like PT equipment that hasn't been used and playground equipment that is still new. Oftentimes it is because of lack of staffing or a lack of knowledge about therapy, but it was good to see this and compare it to some other places we saw last week.

We then went to the Meteorite Museum and saw three rocks. 

Below is the largest metorite in world.

Tonight we are on our own for dinner and walks down by the river. It should be a good quiet time to enjoy each other, get some rest, and prepare for some time tomorrow at a farewell lunch and a flight to Beijing.

It's pretty obvious that our team is missing friends and family, but we are finishing well and representing to the end. Thanks for all of your prayers, support, and encouragement as we go.

Steve

Here is the gift the Mayor of Jilin gave to the City of Spokane.

It won't be too much longer that we will be bringing home to Spokane.

Day 8: Jilin City

From Steve: (pictures following)
What a difference a day makes. Saturday was a record rainfall and Sunday brought something that most people don't get to see in China...blue sky. It was gorgeous, even though it was hot. In the morning Hannah and I got an early start as we were invited by pastor of Hadian church to speak briefly. Pastor Wu is one of the influential spiritual leaders in China as he was the chaplain of the Olympics and has entertained the Clintons when they traveled to China. Prior to church Hannah and I had about an hour with Pastor Wu talking about family, the church, Spokane, and vision. The rest of the team joined us at 11:15 coming to church seeing something not normally seen. About 1500 people were lined up waiting to get in. The church, which is an English service with lots of college students, is in English and lasts about an hour. After Pastor Wu spoke, I gave a brief intro and then turned Hannah loose. She referenced Mother Theresa when she said, if you can't feed a hundred, then feed one. She tied that into James 1:27 from the bible where James writes, "True and undefined religion is this...that you care for the orphans and widows in their distress and keep yourself from being polluted by this world." Hannah did an awesome job and really tied what Pastor Wu was preaching about to something that the congregation could relate to.

After church and saying goodbye to some friends that showed up there, we headed to McDonalds and then Tiananmen Square. Even though it was blistering hot, T Square was pretty amazing. For six months we have been talking about going to the Pearl Market and shopping hard...well they finally got the chance amid the aggressive clerks and crowds of people. After dinner we finally got to go to the acrobat show. For me, the most impressive was the young girl doing ballet twirls on her toes. Oh, and she did it while standing on the head of a young man while he walked around the stage.

Monday we got packed and checked out of the hotel in morning and headed to the US Embassy. The parents of one of our lilac girls has a sweet contact with Ambassador Locke that we were able to benefit from in order to spend the morning with his longtime personal assistant since the ambassador is out of country right now. The embassy was amazing and a great privilege to spend time seeing those things that no one normally gets to see. We also made a great connection with the assistant that may benefit some others down the road."

From the embassy we headed to the airport and quickly checked in without a single issue...well except some friendly security people trying to find something that Hal apparently had hidden on his body somewhere. We flew to Changchun, the Capitol of Jilin Province in NE China. We could have flown straight into Jilin City but I guess a city of 4.5 million people doesn't have an airport. Kind of like Chicago not having one....hmmm. Anyway, Danielle Xu, a professor at Gonzaga and resident of Jilin met us with Peter, the Director of Foreign Affairs. We went right to the bus and drove the two hours to Jilin City. Honestly it could be the Palouse here. It's green and lush and crops are growing everywhere. It's also a nice break from the Beijing air and busyness.

Driving into Jilin City was a great treat as it is very different here. It is their Summer River Festival and decorated barges lined the river....pretty much like Vegas. We did the quick check in and our official dinner began here at our hotel...the only 5 star one in Jijin. We were first greeted by the mayor and his delegation of 5 or 6 others. They were very gracious and the girls were awesome as representatives. We then had a conference room of chairs and thier mayor and Mayor Peterson exchanged comments and gifts. Then Margo and Hal exchanged gifts from our Sister City Assoc. and Lilac Festival.  Honestly, it was an unbelievable time that people just don't get to do. They then moved us to two dining rooms that were set formally. Who would have thought that when the girls had etiquette training it would be for a state meal in Jilin, China? The meal was incredible, cultural, formal, and a once in a lifetime chance. They had name cards set out for everyone, dishes that we would never order, that supposedly were unique to Jilin, flowers throughout the room, and cameras. Throughout all of my travels in China, this dinner beat all the others and was way beyond what I thought back in February when we talked about this.

After dinner we went down to the river to watch the choreographed water show and the neon lights on all the barges and thousands of people. Absolutely incredible.

Monday was awesome. Not in the colloquial sense of the word, but in that this was way beyond what we would have thought, imagined, or could have scripted.

 

The team met up with Margo and the Sister City Delegation representing Jilin City in Changchun, the capital of Jilin Province.

We then took a 2 hour bus ride to Jilin.

Entering Jilin City

Rice Paddies

Arriving at the US Embassy

Outside the US Embassy

A special prividedge was granted to Dennis and Steve when they were able to meet Ambassador Locke's assistant Dennis.

Mayor Peterson with Peter who works for the Director of Cultural Affairs.

Margo presenting a gift to Vice Mayor Fang Liquin of Jilin City.

Mayor Peterson of Liberty Lake being presented a gift from Vice Mayor Liquin.

The Lilac Royal Court presenting gifts to the mayor and his staff.

Having dinner with the Mayoral Staff.

The Lilac Royal Court representing Spokane beautifully.

Day 7: Sunday in China

Pastor Steve and his daughter, Princess Hannah, were asked to share at a Beijing church.

Touring Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing city, Mayor Steve Peterson and the Lilac Royalty Court.

There is nothing like going to a Chinese acrobat show.