The first few days in China

We have finally have found a quiet moment to update our blog. We left San Francisco Wednesday afternoon and arrived in Beijing Thursday evening. The flight in all was pretty good. As we followed the sun around the globe, we slept, read and ate our way to the other side of the world arriving fairly fresh and in good spirits. We were met at the Beijing airport by Sandy one of our Holt guides. She led us on what was an adventurous drive to our hotel with a very experienced driver. To drive in this city is a very chaotic yet well orchestrated dance of weaving and bobbing around cars, bikes, buses and pedestrians. We were constantly inches from hitting something or someone. It is one of those times were you just need to sit back, let go and have faith that the person behind the wheel will get you there in one piece.


Friday morning we met up with our new guide Sally along with eight other Holt families for an hour long ride to the Great Wall. We trekked our way up the very steep, well worn ancient stairs. At the top, we were breathless and tired but well rewarded with spectacular views of the jagged mountainous landscape. After that adventure, we made our way to a Ming vase factory for a tour followed by a family style Chinese lunch. We ended our tour for the day with a pedicab ride through an old Hutong (ally or side street) where we visited a traditional Chinese home.

Saturday we attended our adoption orientation in the morning. Here we received updates on our beautiful soon to be daughter. She seems to be a very happy healthy little girl. I uploaded the recent pictures they gave us. I had to take pictures of them so the quality is poor. After orientation, we ate lunch at the hotel with our group and then headed out on a trip to the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and a tour of a silk factory in the afternoon. Beijing is a lovely city and the people here are very friendly. We have felt very safe, except you have to be careful crossing the street as cars have the right of way.

The last two nights we had dinner with Steve and Kristine, a couple from Kansas who are adopting a little boy. It is a small world; Steve grew up in the Quad Cities where Kari is from. It was fun to venture out with them and try some authentic Chinese food. The food was delicious but ordering was interesting; we basically pointed at pictures and held up our fingers for how many of each item we wanted. We kept forgetting to take our translation book with us. We leave for Guangxi Sunday morning at 11:30. We are very excited as we meet Katie Xuebin on Monday afternoon.