Ni Hao!

This is Christy posting on Mike's account....

Well, we are in Beijing, China! We apologize for the delay in posting, but the last couple of days have been a little crazy. We left Dulles on Saturday morning around 1pm. Approximately 13 hours later, we arrived in Beijing. Dad said to make sure that I describe it as BRUTAL! Truly BRUTAL! The only thing lacking in the plane to differentiate us from a stockyard was no mooing. :-) Christy found the fact that we were called "foreigners" interesting. It was the only time in my life to have ever been the foreigner!

One neat highlight of the trip was going "over the top". We flew directly over the North Pole and then down over Russia. I think the timezones literally changed 12 hours in an instant (but of course it didn't matter when we crossed). At least none of us had to change our watches! We were in constant daylight during the entire flight. Each of us managed to sleep a couple of hours, but we were mostly in a daze. We watched the Golden Compass, The Water Horse (good movie), 27 Dresses and Charlie Wilson's War. The best part of the flight... getting off! Even our wait in the Immigration line was better than the plane. We did arrive at the brand new Terminal of Beijing Airport. What a building... absolutely stunning. It was built for the upcoming Olympics.

Our guide Candy met us at the other end of Customs. We flew out with another couple from NC whose original flight plan was changed. So Candy took the five of us to the Wangfujing Grand Hotel. We showered and briefly crashed before dinner that night. We decided to do Chinese. :-) Actually Candy had it all planned out. We went to a nearby restaurant and had various Chinese dishes. As if on cue (hmmmm), we arrived and the music changed. Stephen Curtis Chapman music began to play. For those not familiar with SCC, he is a Christian singer who also adopted several girls from China and is a big advocate for International adoptions.

That night we slept, but not well. Each of us had moments of awakening during the night. Christy in particular awoke at 4:30 and just laid there for about 45 minutes. It's going to take awhile to adjust to this time change.

Today was an exciting day. We came downstairs to a nice breakfast buffet. Then we met up with the other couples from CWA. Our "tour" began at the Forbidden City. Christy visited her first "squatty potty". Oh what fun! The Forbidden City is where the emperor lived along with his concubines and wives and children. 9999 rooms in all. We toured around the courtyards and looked into several rooms. There was a lot of walking... but it didn't come close to what was waiting for us a little later.

After the Forbidden City, we ate lunch at the Cloisonne Factory. We did a little shopping afterwards. It was interesting to see how each piece was made... from the copper shape, to the raised details, to the enamel and coloring and firing.

Then came the big event. Climbing the Great Wall. I'd say we just visited it... but no... we climbed... and climbed... and climbed... and climbed. No two steps were alike in height or width. Some were 2" tall... some were 24" tall. There were several embattlements (towers) along the way. Each time Christy and Dad reached one, we figured we were done. Then the pressure hit to continue on up. Didn't want to regret quitting later. After one and a half hours of climbing stairs, we were done. Mike made it up at least two levels higher than we did. It took a good half hour to return (last ones on the bus). About 1/5 of the way down, Christy began counting the steps. I reached 961 steps... and that didn't include about 200 that I didn't count. All in all, one of the stupider things we did... but we loved it. :-) My feet didn't hurt much at all climbing the wall... but oh boy... coming down was awful! My favorite quote that I heard on the wall was, "The Great Wall of Weightloss". Funny how when hundreds of people are all huffing and puffing up this immense but mindboggling creation, we all become quick friends. We were all blessed fortunately with absolutely beautiful weather. Low 70's yesterday and today. In fact, we've been told that the rainstorm that came through on Sunday was a huge blessing in that in washed away a lot of the air pollution.

We're sorry we don't have the photos to post on this just yet.... hopefully we'll find a way to post photos soon. Of course, Christy and Mike will need to borrow Dad's photo card... our dang battery died about 10 steps up the wall!!!

After the Great Wall, we headed toward dinner. On the way, our guide dropped us off at a Pearl Factory. It was neat hearing the stories of the pearls and seeing the beautiful jewelry. However, we've been told that it's much cheaper once we get to Guangzhou. Hopefully we'll do some more shopping there. I think we greatly disappointed the workers who followed us around (literally right behind us the entire time!)

Dinner was at another Beijing restaurant where we had some neat Chinese dishes, including the biggee... Peking Duck. All in all, it was pretty good food. One neat thing about these restaurants is how they serve many of the meals "family style", bringing dish after dish after dish to our table. You always end up with more food left on the table... they bring us so much! So, what weight we lost at the Great Wall was quickly added back this evening.

Tomorrow is our big day!!! Say a prayer for us and for little Gracelynn. We will be flying in the morning toward Guangzhou. It is a 3 hour flight (oh so much better than 13). After we arrive and check into our hotel, The White Swan, we'll be heading toward the Civil Affairs office to meet our new daughter! It's going to be a stressful, tiring day. Poor little girl is about to have her world changed. We're so hoping that the Social Welfare Institute (SWI) has been good in preparing her for this new adventure in her life.

Time to go charge up that camera battery, take a long long shower and get to sleep. We hope to post again soon. This time from the White Swan.... in good ol
' hot and humid Guangzhou!

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Christy wrote this post but here are a few thoughts from Mike...

• The plane ride was brutal, but at least I slept through all of 27 Dresses.
• The Beijing airport is amazingly big. It is easy to get around though because all of the signs have English translations - some are better than others. My favorite was "Please keep an eye on oldsters and children."
• I did not have any trouble sleeping last night.
• On the walk up to the Forbidden City we were hounded by local street vendors selling every sort of Beijing and Olympic souvenir. They would get right in your face or pull on your arm and say something like "30 yuan .... for 3 .... what price?" The ones that broke my heart were the disabled selling or just begging. But there were so many people hounding you that you just had to keep saying no and moving on.
• Bathrooms here are interesting. Many are new western style for Olympics. But many are just a hole in the ground... with no toilet paper. The nicer ones have a single bar on the wall for holding on tight.
• As we drove through Beijing we saw many Olympic sites including the Bird's Nest stadium and the Water Cube. (pools) Everyone in the city is very proud of the Beijing Olymipics.
• The Great Wall of China is an evil contraption designed by very angry people. As you approach each tower your legs are screaming and you tell yourself this is the last one. More than once it occured to me that someone could get killed on this ridiculous climb. Then after a brief rest you decide to try just one more tower. With a lot of encouragement from those around you (speaking who knows what language) you finally make it to the top! Then there is a set of 10 ladder like steps leading the very top of the highest tower. I considered skipping these, but then an Ausralian accent next to me said "Might as well take the last 10 mate." So I did, and the view was amazing! I bought a bottle of water at the top of the wall for 5RMB - I would have easily paid 100. (I have no idea how those vendors get their products to the top of that wall, probably a service elevator somewhere.)
• Early day tomorrow, so good night.