Blogs from Beijing, China, Asia - page 24

We began our second full day in Beijing with a visit to Tiananmen Square, the most symbolic reminder that China is a communist country. Our first visit to China had been in January when there were few tourists. April in Beijing is a totally different story. There are tour groups everywhere, mostly groups of Chinese tourists. Nowhere was this more evident than in Tiananmen Square which is an enormous expanse that can accommodate more than a million people at one time with the smiling face of Chairman Mao overlooking the plaza. Unlike our last visit, we had to pass through security to access the square. The line to visit Mao’s tomb (which we were not doing) was hours long. We saw many of China’s ethnic minorities dressed in their colorful traditional attire, here and there throughout ... read more

We met for breakfast at 7:00 all wearing the tour group red T-Shirts that Kayla designed. We are staying at a beautiful, well-appointed hotel with an amazing breakfast buffet which is a dream come true for AiLi. She had (not necessarily in order), baked beans, egg over easy, rice, corn on the cob, congee, sausage, bacon, toast, watermelon, milk, tea and tomato juice! It wasn’t pretty but she was in her glory. Well fed, we boarded our tour bus at 8:00. We had a very full day as we were trying to fit in some of what we missed because of our day delay in Chicago. We headed north to the Juyongguan section of the Great Wall of China. Over the top touristy … yes …but an amazing sight to see and even more to climb. ... read more

Because of the move into the new school at KAS, we were given a 19 day holiday, enabling us to embark on our longest sightseeing tour of the year. We were very pleased to discover that Lulu, the other grade 4 teacher at KAS, also wanted to visit China and was interested in joining us. Maurice and Lulu did a lot of research and put our itinerary together. It helped that Lulu has traveled to 30 different countries, is fluent in Mandarin and was able to research Chinese websites. To be able travel with a multi-lingual young lady who also happened to be very tech savvy was a huge help for us. Facts about traveling to China: When we first started researching, Canadians could get a single entry visa for 30 days ... read more

After breakfast this morning, we made our smoggy way to Tiananmen Square where there were hordes of people. Our guide said it was a normal day and summer is much more crowded. Meg and I were there in November and it was a much different scenario but it was also cool and at dusk which made it difficult to get pictures. This time we got loads of picture and again, the Chinese took pictures of us and a couple of gals (not Chinese) got right into our photo as you can see. Onto the Forbidden City… Since I had already toured the Forbidden City, I enjoyed people watching and took some photos that I thought were interesting of some of the kids. I wonder what you will think. LOL A stop at a hotel for lunch ... read more

It has been 7 wonderful years since we returned from China with AiLi and became a family. And our bonds with the families we traveled with have grown stronger and deeper with each passing year. We knew we wanted to visit China again with our daughters and we are now on the eve of that dream becoming a reality. Four of the six families in our original CAWLI adoption group are leaving on Saturday, April 11th for our adventure. The girls are (in their own words) “super duper excited” about the trip. We have an ambitious itinerary planned: Beijing, Xi-an, Chengdu, Hefei, Yellow Mountain and Shanghai as we look to expose the girls to as much of what China has to offer in a short two week window. It will be fun and educational and in ... read more