We flew from Fort Wayne to Chicago, and then took off from Chicago at 2:20 Fort Wayne time. Flight lasted 12 hours 25 minutes. Beijing is 12 hours ahead of us, so we don't have to change our watches. (Little things like that are cool.) The flight was uneventful except for a bad case of turbulence as we descended to Beijing. Anna LOVES flying.
Landed at the new Beijing airport (opened 3-26), largest in the world. It is beautiful and modern and enormous. Checked in to our hotel along with 6 other families.
Next day (Monday) up early for a long sight-seeing day. Tiananmen Square (the size of 60 soccer fields). The Forbidden City (9999.5 rooms--we didn't tour all of them). A cloisonne factory and lunch with westernized Chinese food.
Beijing's downtown just goes on and on and on. A city of 18 million. There are people everywhere. A beautiful CCTV tower being under construction. Two towers that join at the top. Our guide Allison says it's one of the 10 contruction wonders of the world.
On to the Great Wall. Did some heavy-duty climbing. Steps very steep and uneven, and we went way up (and then back down). Very beautiful and ancient (and now) touristy. Stopped at a jade store. Including the jade store, we were offered many times today to lighten our wallets.
Drove by the new olympic buildings. Wow! Hats off to the architects. Back to hotel at 6:30 for supper, and we're exhausted. Have to have our suitcases packed outside our room doors at 5am (5pm, Monday, Fort Wayne time), because tomorrow we fly to Fuzhou, and tomorrow we're supposed to get Callie!
Anna thoroughly enjoyed the day. We all did. We're looking forward to tomorrow.
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1 comment:
Good to hear the flight went well. Can't wait to hear all about Callie!
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