Up early again due to excitement and time changes. Breakfast is a great spread of food! We typically don't eat big breakfasts, unless we're on a trip like this. Today we fly to Xi'an and the Terra Cotta Warriors (TCW). Our guide is very organized and gives each person with luggage a bright pink ribbon with their family number on it. We're family #11.
This airline has an interesting way to board the plane. We take a shuttle bus out to the Tarmac and walk up into the plane. Flight was fine, except for the screeching halt on the runway. I had visions of several other planes stopped in front of us, much like the traffic at the intersections, everyone kind of piled together. Once we gathered our luggage and sent it on to the hotel via a box truck, we loaded the bus and off to the TCW. The temps in Xi'an are in the high 100° F and it's humid. (41°C). The drive through the countryside is beautiful.
The TCW are impressive! It's surreal to be standing right in front of the pit with all the Warriors. We've seen pictures of this place and TV documentaries but to be right here, just doens't seem real. What is real is the incredible amount of people and the offensive heat that is generated by all these bodies. It makes me uncomfortable at times. I want to enjoy the experience yet have to shove my way in to get a glimpse. We manage to see all the pits/digs and then find an unoccupied, air conditioned theater room to rest and watch the video. Of course there is shopping available too.
On our way back to the hotel we stop for a buffet dinner. It was an impressive restaurant but the food lacked a lot! One of our group members celebrated her birthday today and they brought out a cake for all to enjoy (garnished with some fruit but also grape tomatoes and something that looked like a black olive but most definitely was not). The cake was surprisingly good (sweets like this are not typically eaten).
Once we got our hotel rooms (2 that are separated this time) we crash - what a hot, but good day!
Saturday, July 29, 2017
7/19 Beijing - Jade and the Great Wall
Today, our bus takes us to the Jade Factory for a tour of jade, how it is polished and the types of jade China has. It is a beautiful stone and there are very skilled craftsmen. After our tour we have shopping time with a special offer just for our group, 30% off. We have our own "personal" assistant following us around as we shop. (Insert need for personal space here.)
Once our shopping time was done we went to the Juyongguan Pass of the Great Wall. On our 2 previous trips we visited the Badaling Pass, but according to our guide that part is too busy because that's where the locals visit and it's summer break.
The Juyongguan Pass is incredibly steep - we're talking 85° Steep. It was hard! Really hard. Megan made it 1/2 way to tower 2, Kyle to tower 2, Natalee made it to tower 3 and Mom (me) made it to tower 1. That was a huge accomplishment for me as I don't like heights and am probably not in the best of shape. It was awesome though! I took my time and had several selfies with people along the way. I wonder who in the world (India, Belgium, China) has my photo. When I made it to the tour, I rested for awhile. Megan was on her way down with another family from our group and was shocked that I was there. 😄 Natalee made it to tower 3 and could have kept going except she was running out of time. The girls seemed to enjoy this better than yesterday.
Back on the bus and our next stop is the Friendship Store and lunch. Boy are we all sweaty and dirty, but at least everyone else is too. Shopping wasn't too bad this time, much less pushy. I've enjoyed watching my girls experience their birth country and am looking forward to the next several days. Just observing them is fun too.
After shopping, our driver takes us past the Olympic Village, Bird Nest and Water Cube. They do use these venues for other sporting events. Megan went swimming with her friend this afternoon while Kyle took Natalee to hang out with the friends she's made. They ended up getting some ice cream too. We're all tired so after some snacks and ramen and packing for our next flight, we went to bed.
(Photos will be added later, device is not working properly to add pics. Sorry.)
Once our shopping time was done we went to the Juyongguan Pass of the Great Wall. On our 2 previous trips we visited the Badaling Pass, but according to our guide that part is too busy because that's where the locals visit and it's summer break.
The Juyongguan Pass is incredibly steep - we're talking 85° Steep. It was hard! Really hard. Megan made it 1/2 way to tower 2, Kyle to tower 2, Natalee made it to tower 3 and Mom (me) made it to tower 1. That was a huge accomplishment for me as I don't like heights and am probably not in the best of shape. It was awesome though! I took my time and had several selfies with people along the way. I wonder who in the world (India, Belgium, China) has my photo. When I made it to the tour, I rested for awhile. Megan was on her way down with another family from our group and was shocked that I was there. 😄 Natalee made it to tower 3 and could have kept going except she was running out of time. The girls seemed to enjoy this better than yesterday.
Back on the bus and our next stop is the Friendship Store and lunch. Boy are we all sweaty and dirty, but at least everyone else is too. Shopping wasn't too bad this time, much less pushy. I've enjoyed watching my girls experience their birth country and am looking forward to the next several days. Just observing them is fun too.
After shopping, our driver takes us past the Olympic Village, Bird Nest and Water Cube. They do use these venues for other sporting events. Megan went swimming with her friend this afternoon while Kyle took Natalee to hang out with the friends she's made. They ended up getting some ice cream too. We're all tired so after some snacks and ramen and packing for our next flight, we went to bed.
(Photos will be added later, device is not working properly to add pics. Sorry.)
Observations
Wow, about a week or more has gone by since my last official blog post. Due to exhaustion at the end of the day, lack of reliable wifi at our hotels and not able to connect to our VPN, we haven't posted much here. Occasionally we were able to post on FB.
As I finally have time, some energy and a good connection, I find myself struggling with what to write. So much has happened in the last 10 days! I'll start with a few observations....
As I finally have time, some energy and a good connection, I find myself struggling with what to write. So much has happened in the last 10 days! I'll start with a few observations....
- Everyone has a job, no matter the age
- The cities all have recycling cans which wasn't the case 8 years ago
- Guiyang (Megan's birth city) has really grown and modernized a lot
- Still crazy drivers and yet still few accidents
- Still haven't learned of personal space and with millions of people, you'd think they'd want a little of their own
- We draw lots of crazy looks and stares
- The great firewall of Chna is strong
- We rely on google for just about everything and when it's not available, ya feel kinda lost
So, we've made it to Loudi (Natalee's birth city) and will be here until Monday when we head to
Guangzhou then HK and home. I'm going to go back now and post some journal entries (pretend they were posted on the day they happened.). 😄
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
7/18 Beijing - Vast Extremes
Today we were up really early and ready to go. It was a day of extremes. Extreme vastness, extreme excessiveness, extreme humidity, extreme traffic, extremely small...
Our first visit was Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Very interesting places but waaaayyy too many people and waaayyyy too humid to spend 4 hours at a snails pace. (Sorry that sounds a bit complaining and ungrateful - definitely not intended, just keeping it real.). It was hard on Megan but she was a trooper. It for sure is an amazing place and so vast it's hard to truly capture its size and the grandeur it once held within China. One fact ...there are 9,999 1/2 rooms within the Forbidden City (that 1/2 a room really would have made this palace a little too big) (lol).
We enjoyed a rickshaw ride through the Hutong region of Beijing. This is the ancient city where more than a million people still live. A local family prepared an amazing meal for us. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures as it was raining quite hard. The afternoon consisted of a visit to CCCWA (China Center for Child Welfare and Adoption). This is where all adoption paperwork is processed. I really thought it would be much larger than it was, but it's only a few dozen people. We were able to see Megan's file but Nat's file has advanced to the archives. The girls participated in a Chinese painting class and then it was on to Peking Duck dinner. Good, but the local family meal was much better. It was an extremely busy, interesting, hot, great day!
Want pics? You'll have to see my FB page. For whatever reason, all the devices I got to make this easy has turned into a pain!! Sorry.
Our first visit was Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Very interesting places but waaaayyy too many people and waaayyyy too humid to spend 4 hours at a snails pace. (Sorry that sounds a bit complaining and ungrateful - definitely not intended, just keeping it real.). It was hard on Megan but she was a trooper. It for sure is an amazing place and so vast it's hard to truly capture its size and the grandeur it once held within China. One fact ...there are 9,999 1/2 rooms within the Forbidden City (that 1/2 a room really would have made this palace a little too big) (lol).
We enjoyed a rickshaw ride through the Hutong region of Beijing. This is the ancient city where more than a million people still live. A local family prepared an amazing meal for us. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures as it was raining quite hard. The afternoon consisted of a visit to CCCWA (China Center for Child Welfare and Adoption). This is where all adoption paperwork is processed. I really thought it would be much larger than it was, but it's only a few dozen people. We were able to see Megan's file but Nat's file has advanced to the archives. The girls participated in a Chinese painting class and then it was on to Peking Duck dinner. Good, but the local family meal was much better. It was an extremely busy, interesting, hot, great day!
Want pics? You'll have to see my FB page. For whatever reason, all the devices I got to make this easy has turned into a pain!! Sorry.
Monday, July 17, 2017
7/17 Made it to China
We were greeted by warm smiles, Nihao's, some strange looks and the stifling heat and smog of Beijing. Smiles were on everyone's face as our adventure begins. Flights getting here were great, no problems. M's anxiety slowed way down and she enjoyed flying. N is pretty tired because she watched 12 hours of movies, stopping only for necessary things like food. K & I are so happy that we're able to give this learning experience to our girls and see things through their eyes a bit. One of the things I was worried about was having 2 hotel rooms, but they are adjoining and quite large, so I'm happy about that. Sorry no pics just yet, I'll figure that out next. I'm just really glad all the headaches with techy stuff at home have all worked (so far). Until later.... Kristin
Saturday, July 8, 2017
Techy Stuff - not my thing
| Megan 6th China Camp |
| n |
Wednesday, June 28, 2017
It's been a L.O.N.G. time
Hey friends... it's time to resurrect our blog. We used this as a tool back in 2008-09 to communicate and share with family and friends about our journey to bringing our second daughter home from ChIna. Well, as time went on we started using FB more often and this blog was forgotten. I'm hoping this works for us in ChIna again as we'll be going in about 3 weeks. We're taking a Heritage Tour with CCAI. So, this is just a test. More later!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
