Beijing!

After 29 hours of travel we finally made it to the hotel at 12:30 AM local time.  Our flight was delayed over an hour due to a lady traveling with her dog.  We were ready for take-off and had to go back to the gate because someone allowed her to board with her dog in a carrier and apparently you can't take a dog from the US to China.  An hour and fifteen minutes later, we finally took off.  The flight was great and American Airlines food is good!  We were served a snack, supper, another snack (sandwich), and breakfast.

Mom and the rest of the passengers slept the majority of the flight.  Me, not so much.  Just like our flight to Russia, I couldn't sleep.  I probably took an hour nap and was up the rest of the time.

Today started early and we found our that our tour guide for the day was in the hospital!  He did make alternate arrangements and we were picked up by two seventeen year old girls and a driver.  They were both Americans and one lives in Mississippi and one in China.  We had a great time with a visit to the Temple of Heaven.  I tried to talk them in to joining the random exercise/dancing groups but they just wouldn't go for it, ha!

After that, we took off across town to visit our hospitalized tour guide.  Robert was in good spirits but I'm sure he would have rather been anywhere but there even though it was a 5-star international hospital.  We had a great visit about our boy, life at Eagle's Wings, adoption, and what the future will look like.

We had a late lunch and they dropped us off back at the hotel.  Mom and I took off walking and enjoyed the sights around this part of Beijing.  We finally ended up back on the other side of the hotel where there is a beautiful little Catholic church.  It was strange to see so many crosses in a small area after driving all over Beijing today and not seeing a single one.  Behind the church is a 7 story mall.  The shops are high end, boutique-like shops.  We kept going up the escalators just to see how far it went and we found a toy store and an amazing restaurant.  I don't quite know why or how but I can eat with chop sticks (mom- not so much).

We have met a few of the other families that will be traveling with us to Zhengzhou and will meet the rest in the morning when we all gather to hop on a bus to the airport.  We have to load at 6:30 AM so we're going to bed early tonight.   I get to hold my boy in 2 days!!!!!!!!

A few random thoughts about Beijing ~

It isn't always under a haze of smog, today was beautiful and very clear.
The traffic just moves together.  Vehicles, mopeds, people, and bicycles weave in and out of traffic with a few honking horns and very little chaos.
There are no sirens and we only saw one police car parked.  We haven't seen any other emergency vehicles.
There are no stray or pet animals out and about.
People like to meet in the park or street corner to play chess, dominoes, or cards.
We didn't see one person begging or asking for money.
There are a lot of trees, bushes, and roses growing along the main roadways.
When walking down a back street we noticed three identical stores in a row and probably 10 within a half-mile.  They were very small and were selling water, pop, milk, fruit.
Children and babies will ride on the backs of bikes or mopeds in four lanes of traffic, CRAZY!
Every young person has a phone and they use it (very similar to America)
The people are friendly.
This city is huge.

I will have to post pictures later because I forgot my card reader at home.  I will start using my cell phone to take pictures so I can share our adventure!

Tanna