Days 1-3 in China!

Today is September 9, 2018. We have been in China since Thursday, September 6 at 10pm.  I haven’t written these last two days because of exhaustion.  We are currently riding a bullet train from Beijing to Jinan which is the city that we will receive our child.  Jinan is a special place because it’s also the city that our daughter is from and many of our sweet little friends.  We are so excited to get to Jinan!  One more step closer to our son!  

So this is our 3rd day in China and we have been busy trying to gain an appreciation for where our children’s lives started.  We were lucky enough to have a cousin who lives in Beijing and was happy to show us around town.  Friday we woke up and had a nice breakfast.  Easing into Chinese cuisine is a lot easier when there is yogurt and french toast to choose from!  The kids were quite pleased with the selection.  We then headed with Joel, our cousin, out of Beijing.  

The traffic in China always amazes me.  The fact that multiple lanes of traffic coming from opposite directions can all merge into the same lane all at once without hitting any bicyclist or pedestrians  blows my mind!    

Joel took us to a farm house and asked permission to hike on their land up to an old section of the Great Wall.  The farmers do not charge hikers, but like to know who is hiking and when.  After we gained permission we went to the trail head.  We hiked straight up for about 45 min to an hour on a single wide rough trail.  It was absolutely perfect!  I’m always at my happiest when I’m in nature.  When we got to the top where the Great Wall was the wind was vicious.  We climbed up the rocks and bricks that were once stacked gracefully to form a fortress but were not complete rubble.  We made it to one watch tower and had a light snack and took some pictures.  When we attempted to climb to the next tower, the wind had picked up so much that we were afraid that it might blow one of the kids over the side!  Even though our time on the actual wall was brief, I know the kids, Jeff, and I will always remember it.  I’m sure we do not grasp the history of the place that we were, but we definitely enjoyed the challenge and the beauty around us.  

After the climb down, we enjoyed a lovely lunch cooked by the farmer and his family.  They own a hotel and restaurant in their home.  One that American’s may consider closer to a hostel.  They served us dishes of chicken, vegetables, and of course rice.  The kids eyes widened as she brought out a bowl of french fries for them!  The food was very authentic and the kids were pleased to have something familiar with a  Chinese twist.  The fries had some spicy Chinese spices sprinkled on them that made them a lot of fun. 

The kids wanted to see more of the wall since we couldn’t spend much time on the un-refirbished section.  So we hiked on the section of the Wall that a lot of tourist climb and when I say climb I mean using your hands to scale stairs along with your feet.  I could not make it very far, my body is not in the same shape that it use to be in. 

On the way back to the hotel we had about an hour and a half drive and two of our kids and I fell asleep.  Between the jet lag and exhaustion from the hike, we were out!  Back at the hotel, Piper and Cooper climbed directly into bed while Jeff and Max went out exploring to find dinner.  They came back laughing about how they tried to order a pizza and how the cashier seemed very stressed to let them know that the pizza was thin crust.  Max seemed so excited of their achievement. I’m pretty sure he has caught the travel bug.

Day 2:  We stared the day with another nice breakfast and went straight to the subway to see if we could navigate the city without Joel.  The night before Joel had sent us directions for the subway, but reading the directions and following them are two different things.  We did make it though the security check and purchasing our tickets for a machine with minimal English and even got on the right subways when we were suppose to.  For a southern family with very limited subway experience, we were quite proud of ourselves.  

Our destination was a park called Beihai Park.  It is a very tranquil park that surround a small lake.  We rented a boat that was shaped like a lotus flower and floated around the lake.  We had a choice to ride a rubber ducky paddle boat, but I told Jeff after the previous days hiking there was no way I wanted to exert energy to ride a boat.  It was so relaxed.  We needed some down time.  The kids chose a few fun souvenirs like ribbon streamers and the prized umbrella hats which made me smile to see them so happy.  

The next park was one that is above the Forbidden City.  We walked through it and gazed down into the Forbidden City and just enjoyed being together.  By this time Joel had joined us and was able to give us some brief history of the park.  

The acrobat show was next on our itinerary.  It was so amazing!  There were acrobats who leaped though small hoops and ones that ran on huge hamster style wheels high above the stage.  Lots of dancer pranced and flipped and the kids favorite was the motorcycles in the cage act!  We watched six motorcycles drive around a tiny metal cage.  It was insane!!!  

After the show we were too tired to do much more so Joel helped us through the Subways back to our hotel.

Later that evening we got a burst of energy and found a restaurant for dinner.  We ordered our food by pointing and grunting.  The kids didn’t eat much.  I’m not sure if that was because of the food selection or that they were tired.  

We all fell asleep quickly and easily…thankfully!