Beijing

After a LONG flight, we have finally arrived in China! Well, we really arrived yesterday, but, let's be honest, we were way too tired to give an update! So, now you're going to get a ton of information...and pictures.

Chris, Sam, and I flew out of Chicago Tuesday night (we got there around 9:00). We had a direct flight to Hong Kong, where we arrived Thursday morning around 5:20.  After a 3 hour layover, we got back on a plane for a 2.5 hour flight to Beijing. Needless to say, we are thoroughly sick of being on airplanes!

After spending an hour in line for immigration, we finally were able to get our luggage and meet, Alice, our in-country rep for CCAI. She took us to our hotel (which is beautiful!). We were going to take a "short" nap before heading out for dinner. Well, we never made it to dinner but we did get some much needed sleep!

This morning we headed out on a tour of Beijing. This city is amazing!  We are in awe by how many people there are here. We knew heading to Beijing that it is a city of 21 million people...but today we got to experience it first hand. It's certainly different than our little town in Michigan!

As we traveled to Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City today there were, literally, people everywhere (and, everyone smokes!).  It was slightly overwhelming...but so beautiful. We learned so much about the rich history of Beijing (and China, in general)....the Dynasties, Emperors, policies, etc. The pictures will never come close to doing this city justice, but here are a few that captured our experiences today:

TIANANMEN SQUARE

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

One of our favorite places was The Imperial Garden inside The Forbidden City. The trees and tree trunks were breathtaking. And then there are the rock formations!

 The last part of our tour today was visiting a hutong community in Beijing. Here is more information about what this is: hutong Beijing

We had the chance to take a rickshaw ride (and only had 1 near collision!) to a local family home for lunch. We were served a traditional Chinese meal while some in our travel group ate in the living room and bedroom. The food was amazing - definitely not Chinese buffet food we have in America!

HUTONG

 I had to post this picture...of all the fascinating things we saw today, Sam was taken by this pet pigeon in the cage where we ate!

Tomorrow we will head out to see the Great Wall and enjoy an acrobatics show in the evening. Sunday morning we will leave EARLY for the airport to fly to Zhengzhou. Monday will be our day to officially welcome Kai into our forever family! We would appreciate your prayers with our upcoming travels, welcoming Kai, Kai welcoming us, Kai's health, and for a smooth adoption process!