Arrival in Beijing

We have arrived in Beijing. Flight was fairly smooth. You might have heard of disruption at Heathrow Airport with man running on to the runway. It happened while we were there but it was no problem.

Anna and Lauren had a real treat. The pilots allowed them to see the cock pit. Also allowed us to take a picture of Lauren with her bear from school. This is a very well traveled bear who is allowed to go along with people on trips. Their teacher showed us album of pictures of him in Kenya. The pilots had humor of putting him in scarf and sun glasses.

Our plane landed at the new airport building in Beijing. It is so beautiful it took my breath. I wanted to pull my camera and take pictures but priority was to get through the airport. It is so large and open and beautifully designed. There are staff to help and make sure you get through smoothly.

Number of people have asked how long is the flight. It varies from 9-10 hours - I think we were 9 hours and 45 minutes. Our flight left around 5:00 pm. We have liked night flying because we get on, have dinner, have some time to watch tv, or read and go to sleep. It passes very quickly this way.

There was a fascinating program on about the building of the Great Wall. It combined the history of how it was built, how the villages came to be around it, and families today who live in those villages.

We were met after going through customs by our guide, Lily, who is with Our Chinese Daughters Foundation, group we are using to organize our tour. Van was there ready to take us to hotel, the Oriental Culture Hotel. I think it was about 1:00 pm when we arrived so we had time to rest before dinner with the group at 6:00. Even though we had slept on the plane, we were still tired, but it is best to try and stay awake, get sunlight, drink water to help your body adjust quicker to time change.

We had a wonderful dinner at the hotel. Wonderful Chinese dishes. We love Chinese food but I think it was such that people who are new to it could try it and find things they liked.

The children were given a beautiful Chinese memory box, a traditional Chinese dress called Qipao, traditonal outfit for the little boy on the trip, and workbook which was photo album covered in Chinese material. It is filled with pages to review what the children have learned and notice other things they will be learning.