After a looooong day of travel, we were excited to relax in our hotel and adjust to the 15 hour time shift. But... bright and early the next morning we were ready to tour the city.
Our adoption agency provides a few guides for sight seeing around the city as a way for us to get to know more about China, meet other adopting families in our travel group and pass the time prior to Gotcha Day.
Friday we went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Just WOW! Tiananmen Square is HUGE and the Forbidden City is even bigger. We walked over four miles trying to take it all in. The incredible architecture, fascinating history lessons, brilliant and bright colors! Amazing.
Exploring around our hotel, before the tour.
Just outside of Tiananmen Square.
A must-do in the Forbidden City
The mother lion is stepping on the cub
This turtle was a favorite.
The Chinese tourists in the area were as fascinated by us as we were by their incredible capitol city. Our all-American group attracted quite a bit of interest in the busy tourist locations as most of the other tourists were Chinese. But, the kids in the group really commanded the most attention. Everywhere we went people were running up and asking in broken English or pantomiming to get a photo with them or just taking pictures and videos on the sly. Our guide explained that many people from the rural areas had never seen caucasian people, especially children, except on TV and movies. And, they were eager to take photos to show friends back home.
Adelaide represented American kids everywhere by treating the paparazzi to sullen looks and grumpy pouts. Eleanor was confused at first, but after the first couple drive-by photographings, she started hamming it up. We are sure that WeChat is now filled with pictures of Eleanor sticking out her tongue and putting her finger up her nose. Our kids, what charmers!
Paparazzi aside, the kids really did have a great time. Adelaide loved hearing the story of the Dragon Lady and seeing her home in the Forbidden City. Eleanor was fascinated by all the animal carvings. But, their favorite part of the day was the rickshaw ride!
Bumping up and down through narrow streets, past ancient homes and crowded shops - they were in heaven! We had lunch deep in the maze of narrow streets in the Hutong district, provided by a local family that caters to tourists.
Ducklings! Baby animals are always a highlight.
After lunch it was back to the hotel to spend a few hours being put on hold by three different airlines that all blamed each other for our lost bags. Melinda finally got a couple great United reps on social media to look at the case and track down where our luggage ended up in Air China's system. Matt had to taxi back out to the airport to claim the bags, but we're relieved to get them before leaving the city. Despite the Air China Baggage Claim office number being "busy" all day, when he arrived the five agents on staff were playing games on their cell phones. Nice.
With clean underwear and a good night's sleep, yesterday was another big adventure! We went to the outskirts of Beijing to visit the Great Wall of China. It's just as impressive and massive as you'd expect, but with breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains that were a surprising delight to us.
The portion of the wall we visited was steep, and the steps were uneven. Some were just a couple inches high, others nearly up to our knees. It made the climb all the more interesting and unique. We strapped the kids to our backs and enjoyed exploring the ancient stone work, climbing to the top of look out towers and occasionally stopping to take pictures with our "fans."
After spending a couple hours hiking, our tour group went to a local restaurant/tourist trap. In exchange for a delicious meal and Western style toilets, we had to listen to a presentation on the history of the jade industry (super interesting) and wander around a show room of gorgeous carvings that were too expensive for this trip (a few ladies in our party got beautiful bangles). The kids loved the statues and the free-flowing Sprite at this stop.
The last stop of the day was to an acrobat show close to our hotel. We've gotta say, this show made us nervous! Quite a few tall climbs and crazy flips, and not so many (or any) safety nets. There were balancing acts, lots of coordinated flipping, a bicycle dance (12 women on one bike at one point) and more. The grand finale included eight motorbikes doing closely timed loop-the-loops around each other in a steel cage on stage. While we enjoyed it, I think we agreed with Adelaide at the end when she said, "That didn't look quite safe..." Even our daredevil Eleanor thought it was a bit crazy.
Today we head out early to take a short flight to Zhengzhou where we will spend the afternoon getting ready to finally pick up Steven on Monday. We are all so excited. Adelaide and Eleanor have taken to yelling "Steven!" with big smiles whenever we ask them to pose for a photo. They came up with it on their own. And, the tour guide just taught them how to say little brother (di di).
As much fun as touring has been, we are READY for the main event. Tomorrow we meet our little boy!
Our adoption agency provides a few guides for sight seeing around the city as a way for us to get to know more about China, meet other adopting families in our travel group and pass the time prior to Gotcha Day.
Friday we went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Just WOW! Tiananmen Square is HUGE and the Forbidden City is even bigger. We walked over four miles trying to take it all in. The incredible architecture, fascinating history lessons, brilliant and bright colors! Amazing.
It only took the kids about 2.3 seconds
to start goofing off with the local serving utensils.
In the Forbidden City.
Adelaide doesn't have a headache, this was her "pose."
Adelaide doesn't have a headache, this was her "pose."
(Western toilets!)
in what we assume to be an affectionate squish.
The Chinese tourists in the area were as fascinated by us as we were by their incredible capitol city. Our all-American group attracted quite a bit of interest in the busy tourist locations as most of the other tourists were Chinese. But, the kids in the group really commanded the most attention. Everywhere we went people were running up and asking in broken English or pantomiming to get a photo with them or just taking pictures and videos on the sly. Our guide explained that many people from the rural areas had never seen caucasian people, especially children, except on TV and movies. And, they were eager to take photos to show friends back home.
Adelaide represented American kids everywhere by treating the paparazzi to sullen looks and grumpy pouts. Eleanor was confused at first, but after the first couple drive-by photographings, she started hamming it up. We are sure that WeChat is now filled with pictures of Eleanor sticking out her tongue and putting her finger up her nose. Our kids, what charmers!
Paparazzi aside, the kids really did have a great time. Adelaide loved hearing the story of the Dragon Lady and seeing her home in the Forbidden City. Eleanor was fascinated by all the animal carvings. But, their favorite part of the day was the rickshaw ride!
Bumping up and down through narrow streets, past ancient homes and crowded shops - they were in heaven! We had lunch deep in the maze of narrow streets in the Hutong district, provided by a local family that caters to tourists.
Rickshaws! We even some Amazon rickshaws out
making deliveries. It was awesome.
Delicious local lunch, the kids couldn't get enough meatballs.
After lunch it was back to the hotel to spend a few hours being put on hold by three different airlines that all blamed each other for our lost bags. Melinda finally got a couple great United reps on social media to look at the case and track down where our luggage ended up in Air China's system. Matt had to taxi back out to the airport to claim the bags, but we're relieved to get them before leaving the city. Despite the Air China Baggage Claim office number being "busy" all day, when he arrived the five agents on staff were playing games on their cell phones. Nice.
The portion of the wall we visited was steep, and the steps were uneven. Some were just a couple inches high, others nearly up to our knees. It made the climb all the more interesting and unique. We strapped the kids to our backs and enjoyed exploring the ancient stone work, climbing to the top of look out towers and occasionally stopping to take pictures with our "fans."
Yes, this hunky dude walked up
all those stairs with a 42 pound little
girl on his back. Hot stuff!
Melinda and her climbing buddy
checking out the view.
During the flat stretches of the wall,
we let the girls stretch their legs.
They loved looking over the river.
After spending a couple hours hiking, our tour group went to a local restaurant/tourist trap. In exchange for a delicious meal and Western style toilets, we had to listen to a presentation on the history of the jade industry (super interesting) and wander around a show room of gorgeous carvings that were too expensive for this trip (a few ladies in our party got beautiful bangles). The kids loved the statues and the free-flowing Sprite at this stop.
Adelaide is channeling her inner jade tiger.
The last stop of the day was to an acrobat show close to our hotel. We've gotta say, this show made us nervous! Quite a few tall climbs and crazy flips, and not so many (or any) safety nets. There were balancing acts, lots of coordinated flipping, a bicycle dance (12 women on one bike at one point) and more. The grand finale included eight motorbikes doing closely timed loop-the-loops around each other in a steel cage on stage. While we enjoyed it, I think we agreed with Adelaide at the end when she said, "That didn't look quite safe..." Even our daredevil Eleanor thought it was a bit crazy.
Today we head out early to take a short flight to Zhengzhou where we will spend the afternoon getting ready to finally pick up Steven on Monday. We are all so excited. Adelaide and Eleanor have taken to yelling "Steven!" with big smiles whenever we ask them to pose for a photo. They came up with it on their own. And, the tour guide just taught them how to say little brother (di di).
As much fun as touring has been, we are READY for the main event. Tomorrow we meet our little boy!
So glad you got your bags back before leaving Beijing and so stoked to see pix of Steven! Praying he takes well to the transition. <3
ReplyDeleteoops, wasnt logged in. -Eve
ReplyDeleteWe are all LOVING the pictures and are happy to hear all is going well (completely thrilled about the reunion with the bags). Words can't convey how excited we are for you all to finally hold Steven in your arms! You continue to be in our prayers.
ReplyDelete