Thursday, November 2, 2006

We’re thrilled to be able to say that we made it safely to China! We landed in Beijing a bit ahead of schedule, but lost any time in the horrible rush hour Beijing traffic. Nonetheless, we’re happily in our Beijing hotel rooms, and are happy to report that Aunt Karen just arrived safely, as well.

13 ½ hours is a long time to sit on an airplane. The boys did really well, and even managed to sleep for a bit. Mostly, though, they played their GameBoys, and not once did Dad or I tell them to turn them off!

Beijing is everything we were warned it would be. The traffic is incredible (and that’s not a good thing!), and there are bikes, pedestrians, and motor vehicles of all sizes fighting for every square inch of the place. The city is completely under construction, and old things are being renovated even as new things are being created. My personal thought is that they’ll have a tough time finishing up all of the projects they’ve started (and planned) before the Olympics in ’08. I might be wrong, but it seems like they’ve got a lot to do in a relatively short amount of time.

Tomorrow we have plans to see the Hutongs and the Summer Palace with another family from Great Wall. Most of the rest of the group should arrive at different times tomorrow, so we’ll undoubtedly meet most of the rest of our group then.