We left our at around 3:50 am on Jan 14th. Checking in was a breeze as was security. the flight to Detroit short and uneventful. The 5 hour layover wasn't too bad. We burned an hour of it over breakfast at Max and Erma's, great breakfast by the way if you find yourself in the Detroit airport. I never thought to ask the other couple (J-mom) we knew would be with on the flight from DTW to PEK (Beijing) what time they'd be here but as we sat in the waiting area it was pretty obvious.
While waiting we met a South Africa man who had adopted 2 children from Ghana. They now live in China where he teaches English of all things. This prompted the lady behind him to come over and talk. It's pretty easy to spot other parents who've adopted from China. Come to find out they use to live in Hudsonville and now live in IL. They have an 11 year old son and are adopting a 9 year old. What a small world we live in. They too will be in China as long as us but leave a day later. I plan to introduce her to J the mom from our group who's husband has to return early. They will be on the same flight to DTW so it will be nice for J-mom to have someone somewhat familiar around.
The Flight - well it started off really good, until I tried to use my video screen, but the attendant was able to reset it Thank God so it worked out good. J-mama and her husband were behind us. We had to fill out our Chinese Immigration clearance form to come into China. Glad J-mama was behind us so we could figure out what to put where lol. They fed us 2 full meals, and a snack. The snack was really good. My first meal was good except the chicken tasted like lighter fluid so I didn't' eat that and I wasn't feeling good for the last meal, which was served about 1 1/2 before we landed. I watched 4 movies and about 4-5 tv show episodes. I think there was 1 more movie in there but I fell asleep, at least it was a movie I had seen before. That my friends is the only time I slept on that flight! I think maybe 2 hours total. Which is so unusual for me since I usually crash out before we even leave the gate! I am glad we paid extra to upgrade to economy seating. The Extra leg room for Joe was a Blessing! wish we could have gotten it on the way home.
The first thing i noticed when we arrived was the smog. However at first it didn't click with me as there are times in MI that we land and it's cloudy due to fog and winter weather. Then the heat hits ya in the airport, and slowly the smell. I have to say I was continplating how to or if I should mentiont the smell. but it is a differnet country so i couldn't be honest without mentioning it. To me it was almost overwhelming. It reminded me of arriving in Alaska and smelling those forest fires, but I like the smell of campfire so it wasn't as bad. It probably didn't help that I just got off a 14 hours plane ride, my nose was dry and stuffed, and I wanted water and some hand lotion. Thank you Doreen for noting to bring cough drops. I'm glad I packed all of mine and thought to put one in our carry on. I used it while on the plane and once we got here.
We first had to pass through a medical screening area. I'm guessing it takes your temperature as you pass. I wasn't sure how I'd do on that part. I think my Dramamine was wearing off on the last part of our trip and I was warm from being in the airport. Then we headed to customs, I would have taken a picture but that wasn't allowed. I don't even think our lady smiled. At this point we ran in the L-family and I introduced her to J-mama. Although we are not with the same agency or hotels we'll be in the same cities so I'm sure we'll run into each other. I thought well now that's pretty easy. Off to get our luggage and find our guide George. Got a little nervous at the luggage carousel as we had 1 bag and awaited the other (the one with our stuff in it) but it soon came around. Whew! We exited to luggage area and quickly found George our guide who took us to the awaiting bus to head to the hotel.
George went over a lot of info with us on the ride to the hotel. Info on the Beijing, the country, CCAI, and the area around our hotel. While it's cold outside they tend to keep the rooms and places inside Very warm compared to what we're use to. We were also given a welcome package of well wishes for our adoption, a direction card in Chinese and English if we wanted to explore, along with a schedule for our time here in Beijing. The ride was short and we arrived around 430/445 pm China time. We headed right to our rooms. One of the bell boys showed us how to use the elevator, you have to put your key in, . Then in our room we couldn't figure out how to turn the lights on, again you have to put your key in this slot and then press the buttons. LOL I imagine they deal with that a lot. It's a very nice room with a view of the city out the window, which will open but has NO screen. Scared my body as my sister would say. We did crack it up for a while as George was right they keep the rooms Warm to say the least.... We tried to watch a bit of TV, not many English channels, and promptly feel asleep. I got up around 8 pm checked the door and got on my pj's and back to bed we went. I did set the alarm for 630 am as we meet George for our tour at 9 am we want to have enough time to shower, eat and relax a little.
At 4 am and this girl is wide awake! lol of course I am I'm sure sleep will hit me later today. I remembered Joe found the hot pot last night so I pulled that out and grab condiment cup and God bless them there was COFFEE!!! AND Creamer and sugar. ahhhh I'm in heaven. I'm glad I didn't find it last night as I probably would have drank them both and been bumming this am. We were going to order room service last night but the bed was calling.
I opened the window a little this am to let some cool air in and it was pretty quiet out there. As it's now about 645 am things are starting to pick up out there and the city is starting to wake up.
We are going to clean up, head to breakfast and get ready for the day ahead of us. Today we visit Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden city (which isn't far from the hotel). Then we will take a Hutong tour by rickshaw with lunch at a local family's house. We'll head back to the hotel between 2/230pm China time. That should give us plenty of time to rest and relax. Then maybe we'll go out to dinner and do some exploring. There is some little shops I can see outside our window, and George showed us where a shopping mall and the 7-11 is. Oh thank heaven for 7-11!!!!
Will post again when we can with pictures of our hotel and the day. Thanks for checking in on our journey and your continued prayers.
Blessings to you!!!
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