Hello from China!

We are here! It took me a while to get a chance to blog because we have been so busy since we arrived. I was so tired last night when I finally had a chance to go to sleep and now I am awake at 4:00 AM writing this.
We arrived at midnight late Friday night and did not find our guide right away holding a sign with our name on it. She was there but thought we would be a little later so she wasn't at the spot where we came off the plane on time. We happened to meet Ruth, another adoptive mom using the same agency as us, and some of her daughters and sister when we were waiting to board in Detroit. Her guide was a sweet heart and made some phone calls for us to help us find our guide and I am very grateful to him. There is nothing like getting off a plane in a foreign country and not knowing where to go next! After we found her we quickly took off to the car for our ride to the hotel. Then the hotel couldn't find our reservation and were about to give us a room at triple the price that was arranged for us! Luckily I had printed a copy of the email conversation I had with the person who made our arrangements which had the price quoted on it. When we went to our room and slid the key in the door someone was already occupying it! Luckily he had a great sense of humor and was still dressed at 1:30 AM! The people at the desk where so flustered and apologetic after that! Whew....we had a rocky start but after a good nights rest everything got much better.
We met up with our guide, Grace, in the morning and she took us on a great and informative tour until late last night and will meet us this morning for more. She did a fantastic job. Last time we were here we travelled with other families in a van but this time it is just us so we walked, took the subway and taxis. This enabled us to see and experience the real Beijing. There is nothing like being the only Norwegian/Irish girl being sandwiched into a sea of Chinese people in the subway, pushing your way to your subway car and being pushed into your subway car! There were so many people that if you trip you will not fall because the sea of people will carry you with them. The subway system was much nicer than NY but very crowded at times, mostly young people because it would be too hard for the elderly to get on. Grace moved so fast and knew exactly where to go. It reminded me of when we go to NY and Andrew's cousin Shereen rushes with us through the subways so we can see all we can in one day. Walking through the streets and going by taxi are also wild because there are no rules....cars cutting, people walking and bikes and carts winding in and out! You definitely have to be alert!
So grace took us to The Temple of Heaven, The Summer Palace and The acrobat show. We chose these places because we did not see them last time we were here for Makenna's adoption. The thing I liked about The Temple of Heaven was that it was surrounded by a beautiful park that was filled with people just hanging out relaxing and socializing. There were many older people playing music, dancing, practicing martial arts and doing Ti Chi. They stay busy and active doing these things in the morning followed by shopping for what they need at the street vendors. It is interesting to see such a contrast between the old and the new here mixed together in one view. You can see a brand new sky scraper right next to a small village of one story shelters like you see in the movies. You can see young people dressed in the newest style of clothes walking along side an older person dressed in the slippers and non matching loose top and pants. You can see brand new cars riding alongside of bicycles loaded up very high with goods taller than the bicyclist. The Summer Palace was also beautiful and created with every detail in mind with everything having a special meaning. Too many details for me to put here (even if I could remember them all). The acrobat show was OK, we have seen better Chinese acrobat shows in the US, but the amazing ending was eight motorcycles inside a big metal ball going around in synchrony without hitting each other, in the dark with flashing lights!
Today we plan to go to The Great Wall and the Ming Tombs....then on the overnight sleeper train to Harbin. Tomorrow we get to meet Jinbao!
I am going to post some pictures on a separate post just in case I have trouble posting them.

Thanks for following! Donna