Beijing

Well the first day in Beijing was a blur. We arrived around 2 pm local time and headed straight to the hotel. The hotel is nice enough except for one major issue, malfunctioning AC! Bruce said we forgot what a Texas summer is like with heat and humidity, and that is exactly how the

weather is here in Beijing. Therefore, an AC that does not work makes for a miserable night of sleep especially considering a 7 hour time difference from the UK.

Day 2 started very early with breakfast and meeting the other families traveling with America World. Avery met another little 7 year old girl named Avery who is from Columbus, Ohio. They are here adopting a little girl. What an answer to prayer for Avery to have a pal to spend they days with. You would never have known they just met each other because they got along like life long best friends. Cute!

The first stop of the day was Tiananmen Square. There were thousands of people visiting this tourist site so the crowds were a little unnerving. From there we walked to the Forbidden City. We had no idea how big the Forbidden City was, but we walked for a couple of hours passing through the various gates from the outer city to the inner city and still never made it to the old Emperor living quarters. This too was very crowded, but I guess everything is in a city of 20 million people. From there we had a lunch at a local restaurant that also manufacturers Jade jewelry. I just had to get a lovely jade/sterling silver bracelet! It was very neat and interesting.

 

The last stop was the Great Wall of China. This was absolutely incredible and massive. We climbed and walked on the wall for a couple hours then ran out of gas! After stopping for a local dinner feast, we headed back to the hotel. Day 1 was great, but exhausting! We leave in the morning to fly to Guizhou province to pick up Zachary! More of the journey to report later.