Our last day in Beijing

Before I start, let me just say that today is my first day that blogspot has been blocked, so this is a blog sent from my email. If it's formatted funny that is why.

Yesterday was our last day in Beijing and it was another busy one. We were all up early again and went to the yummy Grand Hyatt breakfast again. Jason, Ellie and I then went down for one last swim in the pool. Ellie is really starting to get good at swimming. She can put her head under, paddle, and kick, and stay afloat for a couple of feet. Compare this to last year when she wouldn't even put her face in the water. We then went upstairs to pack, and then frantically rearranged and weighed our bags to meet the weight limits for the in country flights. We then met Ike our guide and our driver for a quick tour of the city. First stop was Tiananmen square. I think the most amazing thing about this was just how many people there were. The only event that I can think of that I've been to with that many people was the Inauguration. That was a huge event. This was just a regular day, and according to our guide, not a particularly busy day. We then walked over to the Forbidden City. We had to wait for our guide to buy tickets which took quite a while. Once he got back we walked through the Forbidden City. It was much warmer than the day before and it felt like we walked about 3 miles. Ike said it was only about a mile and a half though. It also may have felt like longer since I carried Ellie about half of the way and we were constantly surrounded by people. Now, even though I did carry Ellie quite a while, don't think she's a wimp. She has been the toughest little four year old on this trip. We had already probably walked a mile or so through Tiananment square, and it was really hot and humid, and she didn't whine once. Plus, there is only one place inside that sells water and it is at the very far side of the city, so we were all very thirsty. We eventually made it through and met our van on the other side. We then went to eat. We had some chicken and nuts, chicken and cucumber, and pork and mushrooms. It was really tasty. Ellie then got to use her first squatty potty (and so did mommy). For a kid who hates dirty bathrooms she was surprisingly excited by the squatty potty. She did better than I did for sure. After lunch we went to the Temple of Heaven. This was in a really pretty park. There were people dancing, and singing, and playing instruments everywhere. Ellie saw a little girl playing with a big ribbon on a stick and had to join in. Of course, then they wanted to sell us the ribbon. When we were trying to buy it the police came over and started asking questions in Mandarin. Our guide then told us it is illegal to sell things in that park. Great, that's just what we need, to get in trouble with the police before we even get Max! It wasn't a problem though and our guide went back by on the way out and bought the ribbon for Ellie anyways. After that we headed to the airport to catch our flight for Lanzhou. We were the only Westerners on the plane. This will probably be the case when we get to our province too. They still did all of the announcements in English though. Ellie fell asleep as we were taking off and slept through the flight, the trip to the hotel, and then all night long. Jason and I may have dozed on the plane too. We got into Lanzhou and got our bags (the first ones off of the plane - that's a first!) When we walked outside it was dark, cool (about 64 degrees F), and rainy. We drove for about an hour to get to our hotel. There were not many people on the road at all (a stark contrast to Beijing) so I was surprised when we actually got into Lanzhou and found that it's a fairly decent sized city. It has some pretty bridges over the yellow river that were all lit up, but that and the buildings were really all we could see. We got checked into our hotel (all I can say is 5 stars is a relative term) and crashed for the night. This morning we've been up since about 4:30 thanks to Ellie's nap on the plane. We have to get some money changed and make some copies as well as get the room ready for Max. He should be hear about 3pm. I'm really nervous for the first time. I just don't want it to be an awful traumatizing experience for him and unfortunately there's not much I can do to prevent that. Be thinking of us for the next 24 hours.

Our first full day in China

We started off the morning the best way possible - good food. We went to the breakfast at the Grand Hyatt. It was so yummy! Good cheese, fruit, mini sandwiches, pork buns, croissants, pastries were all present. I ate more than my share for sure. We then met our guide and driver in the hotel lobby for what turned out to be a very long, but wonderful day. Our first stop was the traditional hutong neighborhood in Beijing. We toured around on a rickshaw and made stops to walk through some streets and visit with a family who lives in a hutong home. The family had a 14 year old granddaughter that lived with them and she had turtles, snails, and goldfish for pets so Ellie was really intrigued by those animals.

We then stopped at Prince Gong's palace to walk through the grounds and the garden. It was beautiful, but very crowded. We got rained on a bit, but we hid out for a few minutes under an overhang and stayed relatively dry. We did have our first experience here with people wanting to take pictures with Ellie. She initially wasn't sure about it, but by the end of the day she was a bit of a ham with it.

After the palace, we went to the jade factory. For my husband, who's favorite show is how it's made, this was an enjoyable stop. I'll admit, it was amazing to see the intricacy of these jade carvings, but it felt like a bit of a hard sell to me. We did end up buying a beautiful jade family ball here though. I wanted to put up some pictures of this, but it's too bundled up for safety to get a good pic without a lot of effort. The other issue with the jade factory was the fact that Ellie was too interested for her own good. She wanted to "take pictures" of everything and I was constantly worried she would knock over a multi thousand dollar statue that we'd end up having to pay for. After the jade factory we went to the Cloissonne shop, browsed, and had lunch. Lunch was pretty good, there was A LOT of food. Ellie ate lots of dumplings and watermelon. There was also some traditional Chinese "wine". It was 110 proof and we all nearly choked with just a sip of it. There was a definite burn.

After lunch, we headed out to The Great Wall. This was definitely the highlight of the day, for me at least. Mom, Ellie and I hiked up pretty high. Jason made it all the way up to the main tower, but I think he regretted it later. Ellie was a trooper and walked way farther than I would have thought. I think one of the most amazing things about the wall was how many people were there. It was a bit overwhelming. The drive home from the wall was the worst part of the day. It took over two and a half hours due to traffic. Ellie was exhausted. In her world this looks like hyperactivity. She sang and talked and wiggled for two and a half hours straight. Definitely not the worst thing that could have happened, but it added to all of our exhaustion. We were supposed to go to the acrobat show last night, but we ended up crashing again instead. Mom took the brunt of it and gave Ellie a bath and put her to bed while Jason and I slept. We're all up again this morning and getting ready for our second yummy breakfast, more sightseeing, and then finally Lanzhou!

Exhaustion

We were originally supposed to go to an acrobat show last night. The tour company didn't have it scheduled and I'm so glad. We never would have made it. Nobody lasted long after room service last night. This is Ellie and Jason about 15 minutes after dinner. My mom didn't last any longer. We all were in bed by 7:30 at the latest and probably it was closer to 7:00. Ellie woke up for about 15-20 minutes at about 1:00am and you could tell she was out of sorts. We ended up giving her some benadryl to get her settled back to sleep and she's still sleeping now at about 5:30am. (By the way, medicating our child is not a regular occurrence, but we were hoping one good night's sleep will get her in the swing of our new time zone). Hopefully we'll all be well rested for our day of touring.

We love the Grand Hyatt!

The view from the window in our hotel room.

Don't you just love hotel bathrooms?

Not too hard, not too soft.

The gymnasium.


Thanks Lola Granola! Ever since I followed your blog I knew that we wanted to stay at the Grand Hyatt. The level of service they gave to you with all of your quarantine issues was wonderful.




We are in the two bedroom suite which is perfect for the four of us. There is plenty of space for Ellie to play. She spent probably 20 minutes last night doing cartwheels in the living room. The pool is fantastic too. Ellie literally sucked in her breath when we walked into the pool area last night. There are fresh flowers as you walk into our suite and they make the whole thing smell yummy. Their smell way overpowered our stink from traveling for 20 hours. I attached some pictures of the room. I didn't take my camera down to the pool. I was afraid I would lose it or it would get wet, but I'll try and take some there later.

We're here

Well, we made it. It was actually a really smooth trip. All of our flights were on time and we didn't have any issues. Ellie was awesome. She didn't sleep much on the plane, but she was very well behaved. We got to meet a couple of other RQ families on the plane which was such a treat. Our guide for Beijing met us at the airport. His name is Ike and so far he seems very pleasant and knowledgeable. What we could see of Beijing driving in was beautiful. It seems to be a really unique mix of old and new, concrete and greenery. Tomorrow we see the Hutongs, the great wall, and an acrobat show which will be fun. Tonight, we just checked into our hotel (The Grand Hyatt is awesome!), took a swim in the pool, are eating our r0om service, and will head to bed early. It's been a long day and a half. I am so happy and relieved to finally be here. Everything up until this point has been laced with anxiety, but right now I just feel excited and happy.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you, tomorrow

Guess where we're going tomorrow? That's right, China baby. I can't believe that we're actually doing this. I am almost packed - still a few loose ends to throw in. I almost meet the weight requirements, but we do have a lot of baggage. Packing for two kids really increased how much stuff we need. This may be my first true moment as a mom of two. Our ride to the airport comes at 4:30am tomorrow. Jason's still at work and I'm still packing and it's 10:30 at night. At least Ellie is getting some sleep. Hopefully we can all get some sleep on the plane tomorrow or we're going to be wiped in Beijing.

Boulder

We just got back from a grown up weekend in Boulder. It was great. Beautiful weather, wonderful food, great friends, and time together. We are now overwhelmed with what we have to do in the next 60 hours before we leave, but it was well worth it to have the time away.