Beijing

We landed safely in Beijing ,nearly 24 hours after we left our house the day before.  We had a small flight to Newark. As we waiting for that flight, we discovered a dear deiendod mine on the same flight!!! What an amazing blessing to have her alongside us for our first leg of our journey. We both had layovers after that flight, so we spent hours catching up in the Newark airport. Such a sweet way to pass the time.  Then we were off on the 14 hour flight to Beijing. No matter what you bring or how you plan to handle the time, it's just LONG......seems never-ending. Jeremy and I dozed off  and on but Ben didn't sleep at all. He watched movies, played video games, read and did some homework. He didn't love the food but overall handled the experience very well. It was a big deal as a first-time flier!

When we landed, we found our agency guide and he drove us to our hotel.  By the time we got to our rooms, we were fried.
I ate peanut butter with a spoon and some granola for dinner and called it a night.  I think we were all passed out cold by 6pm. Despite waking a bit through the night, we slept probably a good 10 hours and felt much more refreshed this morning.

After a yummy breakfast here at our hotel, we were off to see the great Wall of China. It was a beautiful, clear day and we really enjoyed our time there. It was a great way to release some pent up energy! After, we toured a jade gallery and leaned how jade is carved into special things. It was really neat to learn about the stone that is so special to the Chinese people. We then had lunch there, and it was delicious.

Once we were back at the hotel, jet lag kicked in again, as it felt like the middle of the night for us. Jeremy and I both caved and took a map, but Ben just powered through.  This evening we ate at Pizza Hut, which is much more than what our pizza huts have at home. After some confusion over our order, they managed to bring us a heavenly pepperoni pizza.  Well worth
having to overcome the language barrier.

 We continued our walk through a very popular shopping district with lots of American stores like Gucci, gap,etc. Ben found a toy store that he was fascinated by
 We also briefly stopped into an outdoor market with very authentic Chinese food and experiences. You can get live scorpion on stick or squid or other creatures. It's very crowded in this particular market and the smells are quite strong.  We are by far the minority here. Many passers-by stare a Ben's blue eyes and one man wanted his picture taken with Jeremy.

 It's so fascinating here. The sheer number of people is shocking.  People everywhere, cars everywhere, scooters everywhere.no rhyme or reason, no need to wait in your own lane when you can make a new one! Lots of honking. Our guide handled it all very well, and helped us feel safe on the crazy streets.  Our hotel room has 2 beds that are slightly larger than twin beds. We asked for a roll around bed,but that got lost in.the translation. We also found that the fridge in our room is stocked and locked. We wanted to have it unlocked and emptied of the expensive items so we could use it for our water bottles and other drinks. That too was lost in the translation, a lady came and unlocked it, gestured for is to see what's inside, them promptly relocked it and left. So much for that.  It's amusing to see what the language barrier does to communication amd is a clue into what we have coming with our new son.

 Tomorrow we have a 4 hour flight to Urumqi, Xinjiang, the city where Zhao Yu lives!  Only 2 more wake ups until we meet our forever boy!! We're glad we had this time to be tourists in Beijing, but we're ready to see what Urumqi is all about and most importantly,  meet our son!!