China Update - July 19

We are here safe and sound. It is Sunday morning at 0700, and we are set to meet Cameron later this morning.

Our flight was long, but uneventful, and we actually arrived an hour early. The route took us north from Chicago up over Canada , west of the North Pole, over eastern Siberia, and then south to Beijing . The new Beijing International Airport is huge, and was built to be ready for the Olympics. It’s very open and not at all crowded……quite easy to move around. Evidently, they relaxed the H1N1 rules somewhat just preceding our arrival (per our stewardess), as they did not come on the plane and take all our temperatures on arrival. However, we still have to go through numerous checkpoints and had our temperatures taken by sensors. Following all the checkpoints and Visa stamp, we took a group picture (3 families) and then met our guide “Reagan.”

Beijing is quite different than what Angie and I were expecting, although we only too major routes in to the hotel. They evidently like to plant things…..a lot! Everywhere are trees lining streets, well-pruned bushes lining roadways, flowers, etc. I suspect much of this is a carryover from the Olympics of last summer, and that outlying areas are not nearly as well-kept. Our hotel is near a shopping district that we walked through last night. Quite impressive. The road is closed-off, so there’s just a mass of people strolling and shopping, with some very nice stores and restaurants.

The hotel we are staying at is called the Wangfujing Grand Hyatt and is located in a central area about 1-2 miles from Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City . Our room has 2 beds that are larger than we were expecting, so we have plenty of room for Cameron’s arrival. The beds are, for us, a bit harder than what we’re used to, but Angie and I were both unbelievably tired, so sleep wasn’t too difficult. We have been warned, however, that the beds in Guangzhou are much harder. We have already tracked down some water to put in the rooms mini-fridge, as the water is not drinkable that is coming through the spigots. So, everything must be bottled or boiled. Our room also has CNN (no Fox?????) and ESPN. They are really big on well-known sports figures here. When you walk in the shopping area they have huge video screens and advertisements with Shaq, Kobe , Tiger, etc.

Mei and Jane, 2 Christian World Adoption workers who were instrumental in our adoption, are also in Beijing and are staying at our hotel. This has been an awesome coincidence. Mei is actually here getting ready for Hope Project 3 which will be done from an orphanage in Guangzhou . We were able to spend quite a bit of time with Mei and Jane last including, including when they walked us through the shopping district. At any rate, they will be present today when the three families meet their children, and will be available for us somewhat until Mei departs for Guangzhou in a couple days. They were able to give us lots more information on Cameron, what to expect and how to prepare.

We had dinner as a group last night at a restaurant next door to the hotel. The food was quite good and was fed family style on a lazy susan type device. Quite good. We all ate with chopsticks…..not a pretty site, but I don’t think we’ll starve. Should be interesting eating with Cameron today, as he’ll be quite proficient with chopsticks I assume.

One interesting site last night was when Mei and Jane took us down a street that has a large open fresh food court. It’s on one side of a street and runs a couple hundred yards. Interesting sights, sounds and smells to say the least. It was quite busy. The mass of “fresh” cooked and raw, but ready to be cooked in front of you, items included squid, various animal kidneys and hearts, mealies (think cicada in it’s cocoon still), crickets-on-a-stick, scorpions-on-a-stick, and a number of other items. People were really snapping this stuff up to eat, so it must be somewhat popular as cuisine. Unfortunately, since we had eaten recently, we were forced to put off our taste-testing for a later time.

All the families are anxious to meet their children, and we are no exception. Cameron will be here in only a few hours, and we are quite excited. We will update you as soon as possible. Please note that our computer is, for whatever reason, not connecting through the land line in the room to the internet. I suspect the problem may be the software on this computer, which has caused me no end of aggravation and frustration throughout its life (and I hate Vista !). So, our postings may be a bit hit-or-miss until I can get this figured out or set up an alternate system to post.

Thanks for all your continued prayers and best wishes.