Greetings from Beijing

We made it to China. Yey! This was the longest flight we have ever had - One hour from San Diego to LAX, 15 Hours from LAX to Guangzhou and 3 hours from Guangzhou to Beijing. It is now 2AM in Beijing and of course we cannot sleep due to the 15 hour time difference. I can say that I have never experienced real humidity until today. As soon as we stepped off the plane it was suddenly very hot and difficult to breathe and we immediately started perspiring. There was no AC or we just did not feel it.

For anyone who was wondering about flying China Southern - If you can, upgrade to premium economy. The seats are wide and comfortable and they recline back, you get a personal TV screen and decent food as long (as you don't order the vegetarian meals). It was so easy to sleep on this flight that it went by fairly quickly.

We were greeted at the Beijing airport by a representative of our travel agency who took us to our hotel and after a few miscommunications with the hotel staff due to language barrier we were finally in our room.

It didn't take us very long to venture out and explore. It was very exciting to take a walk in the Beijing streets but difficult at the same time. Literally all the streets in the area of our hotel had their sidewalks (and shopping promenades) dug up and there was dust everywhere from construction work, and people were walking on the road. It was also very crowded and wherever we looked there were large groups of tourists following their tour guide from one spot to another. There was also a huge mall with more eateries and ice cream places than stores that was fun to walk through, but when it came to small shops on the street, the sales people were all over me showing me different items that they assumed I wanted. Of course no one bothered my husband who is American Chinese and they figured he was local.

We got back to the hotel in the evening and are wide awake tonight waiting for our Great Wall tour in the morning with the other families in our group. This should be exciting.

In just a few days we will be going to Chongqing and finally be able to hold our little Shayna in our arms. This is one thing I can hardly wait to do. I keep trying to imagine what she looks like now. We are coming for you, Shayna FuJi.