1st Day in China

June 25, 2007

After a very long plane ride we arrived in our hotel, the Radisson, in Beijing, China. Getting use to the new time zone we went to sleep around 1 am China time, then waking up around six o'clock am. A sleepless night. We slowly trudged down to the breakfast buffet. We had a very western meal that included fresh cooked omeletes, bacon, toast, fresh fruit and at least eight different types of juices. After a very good breakfast we walked down to the locl strip mall. We went into a 7-eleven and bought fresh clean water. Next door was a friendship store (like a mall). After our CHinese shopping we met up with our Chinese coordinator Elsie. We arrived at CHI's Beijing office. We met some of the 20 full time staff that work there. Including our travel coordinator, Michelle. Elsie even had an adoption orientation presentation for us to watch. After we got finished with our CHI tour it was almost noon and we were ready for lunch. We walked across the street to the King Duck restaurant and had fresh steak, chicken and carved duck. The roasted duck was cut right in front of us. We made duck tortillas. Our driver Tom drove us to Tiananemen Square and the forbidden city about 30 minutes away. Walking through the Forbidden City while it was 93 degrees is not fun. Rebecca got so tired we had to cut our tour short. Tom drove us back to the hotal and we took a short nap. We woke up hungry for dinner and we walked to KFC. We had crispy fried chicken and Pepsi. When we left KFC we heard thunder and lightning and then it started raining. We quickly ran into the local supermarket, it was kind of like Walmart and Sam's. After buying some snacks for later, we returned to our hotel. We put our swimsuits on and walked over to the indoor swimming pool. After swimming we turned on the TV and laid on the bed. Around 11:30 we all started to get hungry. We decided to get room service. A Chinese version of Western food was served to us. Hamburgers and spaghetti came to our room. Tomorrow we plan to meet Melody at a Beijing orphanage, visit a village in a rickshaw (a bicycle powered taxi) and see the acrobatics show. (Our plans have been changed from what was on our itinerary We will see The Great Wall on Wednesday).