We're in Beijing!

We are in Beijing! We actually arrived night before last (Saturday pm), but between the jetlag and touring, this is the first time I’ve had time to dig the computer out! We survived the 13 hour flight over (barely) and it is an experience I’m not too anxious to repeat. A Chinese mom and three sons sat in the row behind us and they kicked the seats from wheels up to wheels down. They definitely didn’t understand when we asked them to stop and apparently didn’t get my homicidal vibe when I flashed them “the glare.” Our 747 was packed with only 4 open seats. There was no room to get up and walk around and the entire crew of flight attendants needs to retire SOON! Pete’s seatmate referred to Northwest Airlines as the Greyhound of the skies. I was never so glad to be off a plane in my whole flight life! Our flight from Tokyo was a breeze and made it through customs with no problems. When we made it outside, we could not find our guide. So we set up camp and waited…and waited…and waited. By grace of God, Pete happened to sit next to a man on the flight who was also staying at the Renaissance, so we got a taxi and followed him to the hotel. We had no Chinese money and the man was so kind to give Pete 200 yuan to pay for the cab and hold us over until we could exchange some money! Thanks Kamesh!
We checked in and went to bed! We hit the ground running today! We met our guide, David, and saw Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and Imperial Palace, The Temple of Heaven, the silk factory, had a Chinese tea ceremony, saw an acrobat show and ate two authentic Chinese meals! I cannot even describe the enormosity of Tiananmen Square…it’s huge! We are touring with the Kirchhoff family and Sophie made friends with their daughter, Lydia, who happens to be adopted from China. They stuck to each other like glue and had a fun time breaking the ice with Chinese locals! They would wave at people and made a game of trying to get them to wave back. Sophie attracted a fair amount of attention today, because of her blonde hair and also because she’s just so cool! Many people would stare and we caught some taking pictures of her with their cell phones! They especially loved dressing her like a little empress! It was chilly today with a pretty cold breeze, but unusually sunny so many people were out enjoying the day. Needless to say, we were all exhausted…ready for a hot shower and warm bed!
We will go to the Great Wall of China and the Living Hope Training Center tomorrow. We’re hoping for great weather again. On Tuesday morning we will fly out at 8:30 am to Xian and will meet Lily later that day. We’ve been having so much fun that it just hit me that we will meet Lily in less than 30 HOURS!!!!!
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers…we’re having a great time!!!!