Beijing Tour

Our first official day in China started off great and on an epic scale. We have an awesome guide named Michael who has given us tons of historical information as well as interesting odd tidbits. This helps so much when visiting places like Tian Na Men Square, the Forbidden City and the Great Wall and helps to put things into a cultural context giving us some perspective about Juni's homeland. Plus, Michael cracks me up. We also have a wonderful group of folks from all over traveling on the same incredible road to parenthood and it's amazing to finally be with people who totally get it. Each one of the adoptive parents have been through so much, including an excruciating years-long wait with a multitude of ups and downs and a good dollop of uncertainty. We shared the same fears and frustrations and finally the unbelievable elation and wonderment of receiving a referral. We are all slap happy with anticipation and exhaustion so the mood of the day was fun and many instant friendships were formed.

We look wide-eyed around Tian Na Men Square with its imposing portrait of Chairman Mao. We ran our hands down huge jade lions who stand guard at the entrances of the Forbidden City while real-life stern-faced guardsmen stood tall keeping a keen eye on the buzz of tourists swarming past. We toured the many layers of the Forbidden City and marveled at its unbelievable detail and structural ingenuity. We stood in awe in front of enormous golden dragon-encrusted walls with huge brightly-painted wooden doors and gaped at the intricacies of the artistic designs that adorned each building and walkway. The colors are rich and saturated in deep hues of crimson red, ochre yellow and velvety green patina.  It was truly breathtaking.

We giggled and pinched ourselves for our luck and I happily gripped my little camera while Steve wandered the grounds with a video camera pointed at anything and everything. I loved watching everyone and photographed many amazing faces and smiled as hoards of school children laughed and joked around.

Ubiquitous signs had me doubling up in laughter with a stilted and often hysterical use of the English language. 

Later in the day, we toured a jade factory and we bought some souvenirs for Juni as presents for her when she gets older. A little jade circle with "love" written in its Chinese character on a beautiful silver chain and a tiny little doll representing one of the many ethnic minorities in China.

As if that was not enough, we then hiked up a big chunk of the Great Wall of China and wondered at the immensity of it all while our legs burned. The hills surrounding our climb glowed a dusty-orange as the sun set over large stone slabs that entomb countless peasants who died during its construction.

We then traveled back to our hotel during rush hour surrounded by a sea of zipping, honking cars. We passed many architectural wonders, like a skyscraper built to echo a dragon's body and the Birds Nest built for the recent Olympic games. By the time we reached our hotel, we had shared many stories and much laughter with other families in our group. A few of us decided to go out to dinner at a Thai restaurant recommended nearby and we had a marvelous time. 

It was truly an epic day. Now, I'm going to pass out with bone-numbing exhaustion before waking at 4:30am to leave for the airport. We meet Juni in 14 hours!!!!!