Beijing

Here's Steve and Laura at the Great Wall!

Our first view of China was at night. Our view from the plane showed just how HUGE Beijing is! I've never seen such a big city! We landed in Beijing. WOW! It's now Monday, January 13th, at 7:30PM. We're really here! Now what? Aren't we supposed to be met by someone? Someone who speaks Chinese? Someone who knows how to get us through customs? Someone who knows where Baggage Claim is? Well, without a Mother Hen, we 6 weary and mussed Americans did what all good tourists do... we followed the crowd.

We found Baggage Claim and it looked like a long wait for the luggage. Sara turned to me with the usual plea of any child, "Mom! I have to go!" Great! Where? And how do we find it? I noticed a nice looking guard, standing on some sort of podium. I grabbed Sara's hand and we walked over to him. "Uh, may we please use the rest room?" He looked at me as if I were from Mars. "Uh, the bathroom?" He still looked at me funny. "The toilet?" AHA!!! I'd found the magic word! He pointed to a room at the end of the hall. Of course, it said "Toilet" over the doors. How could I have missed it?

Our first adventure with Chinese toilets! First, Ladies, let me warn you... the toilet paper is hanging on the wall *BEFORE* you get to the stalls. We found the hard way... fumbling around in our backpacks for tissues was not easy. Well, everyone was right. It looks like a bidet in the floor. It really wasn't as bad as I imagined. I'm rather heavy and I was afraid once I squatted down, I wouldn't be able to get back up! Luckily, that wasn't a problem. And to tell the truth, by the time the trip was over, I really preferred the Chinese style toilets. I have to say this, I know some of you will be grossed out, but how many times do you go into a public restroom here in the States and the person(s) before you obviously didn't sit all the way down and left little "sprinkles" all over the seat? YUK! Give me the Chinese style any day!

Well, we all found our respective pieces of luggage. Just beyond Baggage Claim, we could see the lines for Customs. That turned out to be a snap. We showed our passports and Voila! Through, and footloose in China!

Making our way out of the airport, our little group huddled together like the cast in the last episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, we saw the exit. And just beyond... a mob. It seemed like a hundred Chinese people, all shouting. Steve says his first thoughts had to do with "Yankee Go Home". We were relieved to learn that these were all people trying to make connections with passengers. Could our translator/guide be among them? But, just then, a well-dressed woman approached and, standing in front of us, held up a sign which read, "Morrison, Watts, Philpott." Yes! Home safe!

We hustled through the airport, across traffic and through one...two...parking lots. We approached a bus. Not bad. A nice, comfortable charter. But alas, it pulled away, leaving in view the only other bus on the lot. Our bus. Not too bad, really. Like a 10 year old school bus... the little ones... like they use for the handicapped kids. Our guide, Rose, welcomed us and briefed us about our itinerary in Beijing. The Beijing leg of our adventure is for relaxation and fun. Our agency felt that it was vital that we see China. That we know something about the country our daughters come from. And that we have a few days to relax before we get into the adoption. For that, we are grateful. Our first full day would take us to Tiananmen Square, the Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden City and the Imperial Palace. Then, the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall of China. WOW!!!

Rose took us to our hotel, the China Travel Service Hotel. After checking us in, she told us to drop our things in our rooms and meet downstairs for dinner. Our first dinner in China. What would it be like? We couldn't wait.

What was interesting about this hotel was the decor. The huge lobby was decorated nicely for Christmas. The first thing you saw upon entering was a second story banner which had Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. To one side of the lobby was a North Pole Village with a plastic Santa standing guard. In the middle was a huge Christmas tree and there were large snowflakes pasted everywhere.

We met our group in the restaurant and were seated, eagerly awaiting our first taste of authentic, Chinese food. As the waitress approached with our pre-selected menu, our mouths watered in anticipation. And... what were we served on our first night in glorious China? Fish and Chips. GROAN!!! After swallowing our taste of England, catered, it seems, by the local Long John Silver fast food chain (at least that's what it tasted like), we retired to our rooms and crashed.

Tuesday, January 14th We awoke dark and early so we could get a jump on our day. We wondered downstairs to the restaurant for our Chinese breakfast of eggs, ham, bacon, fruit, breads, and fried rice. The fried rice was a nice touch. After gulping down mostly fried rice and fruit, we were given 15 minutes to go to our rooms and gather our things for the day... i.e. cameras, water bottles, et. al. Then we loaded our school bus for our Beijing adventure.

The first McDonald's and KFC signs we saw were kind of cool. However, after a while, it was kind of sad.

Beijing from the bus was interesting. A mix of modern buildings with roads jammed with modern vehicles and narrow alleyways and open street markets with roads filled with bicycles and pedestrians. So many people! We knew right away which Beijing we wanted most to see. We made Rose promise to take us through the open markets.

First stop... the Forbidden City. At the entrance to the Forbidden City, Rose left us for a few moments to purchase our tickets. Suddenly, we were set upon by locusts. A whole swarm. Well... not really locusts. Just a hundred or so young adults and children selling souvenirs. Mostly post cards. And, let me tell you... these people knew how to speak English very well. Their vocabularies were pretty large, but did not include one very important word... "NO". We would turn away, only to be met by three others, selling the same items. We would walk away... and would be chased by half a dozen others. Steve says he has experienced something similar only once... in Tiajuana, Mexico. Finally, Rose rescued us and we entered the Forbidden City.

Rose was a very capable tour guide, explaining the City in detail. We quickly came to the conclusion that this was one of the most incredible places on Earth. To see firsthand the buildings and artifacts, and to examine the artistry up close, was something we'll not soon forget. And, to realize how old these things were just boggled the mind.

An Asian man approached me, and in very good English, engaged me in conversation. I really thought it was funny, the first man to actually approach any of us and want to talk to any of us was *not* Chinese. He was Korean. And he wanted to know all about us.

After a while, we found ourselves at the entrance to another part of the Forbidden City. There was a small booth and a woman sitting behind a counter selling sandals. Rose explained that we had to buy the sandals for 2 Yuan each and we had to wear them in all the remaining buildings in the City. Now, these were ill-constructed, one-size-fits-all slippers, held on your feet with thin elastic and flimsy, neon-orange plastic heel and toe supports. Hey, what did you expect for 2 Yuan?

Anyway, these slippers would not stay on the feet. Usually, they wound up wrapped around our ankles and halfway up our calves. But, there was something else. We noticed none of the Chinese people were wearing these things. In fact, Steve lagged behind the group because he was laughing too hard at the spectacle of Western tourists with slippers crawling up their legs. And, he noticed Chinese people pointing at the Westerner's feet and laughing as they passed. Yep, we're convinced that the CTS tour guides at their annual company picnic, sit around swapping stories about this great "joke".

Back to the bus, and on to our next stop. We found Tianamen Square, the world's largest such property, and found it huge! There were folks flying and demonstrating kites, with the purpose of selling them. Snow and ice covered large patches of the Square. Little boys and girls were running all over the Square wearing coats two sizes too big for them. The little girls had these adorable knit hats with two long braids popping out the top, like long pigtails. I thought at first they were real, but on closer examination, I found they were braided yarn made to look like braids. They were so cute! I guess I was a little surprised by all the little girls. The way the media made it sound, I guess I assumed there were no little girls in China. That they were all in orphanages. Not so. There were lots of little girls AND boys running around, everywhere we went.

On another side of the Square was a huge billboard with numbers all lit up. It was a countdown of the number of days, minutes, seconds until Hong Kong was part of China again. We all had our photos taken in family pictures and as a group in front of a huge photo of Mao Tse Tung which hung on a building at one end of the Square. But the most interesting thing was that this was our first taste that we were different. With a blond woman in our group, and with Steve's beard, we were of interest... to everyone. And the Chinese people let us know it. Friends, you know the Western habit of looking at someone who is different, only to glance away when the person looks back... and doing so repeatedly until your curiosity is satisfied? You won't find that in China. They stare. In fact, they have raised it to an art form. We got stared at a lot. But, it was sort of fun. We felt special, and we knew we were the first Westerners that some of these people had ever seen in person.

On the way back to the hotel, Rose took us to the Cloisonne Factory where we watched cloisonne vases and artifacts being made. Never in our wildest dreams could we have imagined the amount of work these folks put into making these things. Amazing. And here, is where "Laura's Great Shopping Adventure" began. We purchased two vases, chopsticks, a necklace and some baby spoons... all cloisonne. When we left, we toured the street market outside the factory. Laura bought 9 really big paper cuts for 9 Yuan, while Steve watched the men walk around "checking her out"... head to toe, with a prolonged look at her butt! =:-O Little did we know, large women are considered very beautiful and desirable in China. Laura says she's moving back as soon as Steve kicks the bucket! Ahh! No, Steve! I didn't really mean it! ;-)

While in the street market, we made our only purchase of ready to eat foods... candied crab apples on a stick. They were great, and perfectly safe. We didn't get to stay, looking at all the street life. Darkness was falling, so we had to go back to our hotel for our next Western dinner. This time it was steak. Well, it was sorta steak. It was a 1/4" thick piece of beef cooked until all the pink was gone, no seasonings, and tough as leather. And they gave us a butter knife to cut it with... Oh joy!

Wednesday, January 15th Was a cold, blustery, but clear day. We had a big day ahead of us. We were going to see the Ming Tombs, the Temple of Heaven, and one more stop. We dressed as warmly as we possibly could. (That means we put on just about every stitch of clothing we had.) Today we were going to climb the GREAT WALL! YEEHAW!!!

Before we headed off to the Tombs, the driver stopped at a little tourist trap of a store and had us get off to go shopping. Rose was not very happy with the unplanned stop and she and the driver started to argue. I'm no fool, I went SHOPPING!!!

Steve had no gloves, so that's the first thing I looked for. Got him a pretty nice pair for a reasonable price, turned around... OH NO!!!! Sara is looking at the JEWELRY!!!! She had spotted a triple star sapphire and called me over. In that way of hers, "Oh no, Mom, I don't want you to buy it for me... but isn't it the most beautiful ring you've ever seen? It's the most wonderful thing I've seen so far. You know how much I love rings..." Yeah, sure... I don't get it and I hear about it for the rest of my life... The price was certainly lower than I expected and I bargained them down a bit further and got the kid the ring. I don't think she's worn it once since we've been back. KIDS!!

On the way to the Temple of Heaven, Rose taught us a song that the little children sing. She also taught us how to count to ten using our fingers. It's almost like American Sign Language, but slightly different. Little did I know how handy this information would turn out to be later...

We did a quick tour of the Temple of Heaven and the Ming Tombs. Then it was off to the Great Wall. Our driver and our guide were still pretty ticked off at each other, so the driver parked the bus down the hill, around the corner from the Wall. Seems he wanted to eat lunch and have a few drinks, so he parked by the local pub. Out we filed, walking single file up the side of the mountain to get to the base of the Wall. I'm not even remotely what ya might call "in shape" (ha!ha! That's putting it MILDLY!) and I was exhausted by the time we got to the base of the Wall. But WOW!!! Once I saw it, I just had to climb it! It was gorgeous! I've never seen anything so huge and majestic in my life.

Rose explained that there was an easy route and a harder route. Steve, Sara, and I took the easy route while the rest of the group went the harder way. We figured that there was no need for the rest of the folks to watch us turn various shades of purple as we huffed and puffed our way up the Wall.

Looking out from the garrets, I felt like I could see forever. The hills were misty and clouded, the Wall crept along up and over the hills in its serpentine waves. This is the China I've always dreamed about. So many years I had waited for this view and here we were... on top of the world!

Some of the climbing was rougher than any of us expected. The locals were holding on to the hand rail and walking backwards. We tried it, and the going was much easier. Phew! I've never climbed anything so steep! We got about 3/4 of the way and my legs started shaking (warm-ups? Richard Simmons? Is that your voice I hear?) Sara and I had had enough! Sara had a bit of a cold and was coughing her fool head off and I was ready to pass out. We wanted to go back down and go SHOPPING! Steve the brave, plodded onward and upward!

The best shopping on the whole trip was at the base of the Great Wall. The prices were fantastic and the bargaining was lots of fun. I found a handmade quilt with Pandas all over it for $12. Best purchase I made the whole trip. I used that quilt for EVERYTHING.

Before I knew it, our group was back together, shopping around. All except for Steve... He finally appeared around the corner, pale as a sheet and frozen. His hair was plastered down with sweat, his eyes were glassy, he looked ready to collapse... his words were slow and mumbly and I began to worry. Until he finally got out his first sentence I could understand... "What are you buying NOW?" I knew my hero would be OK.

When we got back to the hotel, we met our facilitator. Wow! One of the nicest, most intelligent women I've ever met. We are obviously in very good hands. Whew! I can finally relax... a little... OK you butterflies! This is China! Not JAPAN! Mothra cannot live in my tummy!!! Where is my baby? Two more days and I can barely stand it.

Our facilitator told us that we were her "If It Could Go Wrong, It Did" group. It had taken us 15 months to get to this point. But bottom line, here we were in China, ready to get our babies. One adoptive Mommy in our group called us the "Happy Endings" group. We all really liked that, so that was our unofficial name from that time forward.

We were told at dinner that it was time to pay for our trip. The China Travel Service had arranged all our meals, hotels, and in-country transportation and we paid the "package" price right there at the hotel. It was, after all the China Travel Service Hotel. Pretty cool.

Everyone else in our group had already paid our facilitator to change their flights for an earlier trip home. Back when we were still stateside, we had been told by our travel agent the price of the earlier flights home, and it was just as expensive as staying a few extra days in Guangzhou. So we decided to stay the extra days... or so we thought. We went to pay our bill and found out the prices of changing the tickets for the rest of our group. It was less than half of what we had been told. We were encouraged to change our tickets, too. We decided to go with the crowd and get the earlier flights home. Now all we had to do was get to the Northwest tickets office in Beijing and get them changed. No problem.

Thursday, January 16th Exciting day. We are going to Changsha, Hunan. The capital city of our daughter's province. We get up early, pack the bags and go downstairs to meet "the gang". Steve and Sara are going with the rest of the group to the airport and the facilitator and I will join them there once I have the new tickets.

Getting to the ticket office takes quite awhile. The traffic is worse than I-95 at rush hour. Hard to believe, but true. We sit and sit and we finally get there. We change the tickets, hop back in the cab and try to get to the airport. The traffic is worse than before! Wall-to-wall cars! Thank Goodness, no bicycle traffic to contend with, but we just sit and sit. Got to know the facilitator pretty well, but the clock is ticking and we're getting pretty nervous.

We finally got to the airport and the flight just as our group was leaving the ticket counter. It was time to board! We rushed through and ran off to the plane. It was a madhouse. Even though there is assigned seating, there was a wild dash to the plane. We started running with everyone else, but we didn't know why. We soon found out. There is hardly any place to stow your carry-on bags and it seems EVERYONE has a carry-on bag.

On to Changsha!!!

drop me a line