We made it!!

Hello, from China! Mom and I made it safely, after about 18 hours in a flying cylinder! The flight was long of course, but not too bad really...we watched a lot of movies!


Yesterday afternoon after our arrival, we found our hotel (not an easy feat...the taxi drivers are a challenge), and then went out exploring.


We are very close to the Forbidden City, so we walked around it and of course made our first purchase... a surprise for Grandaddy! He's reading, so I'll keep it a surprise for now, but we did haggle with the little street guy. He actually followed us down the street for about a block before we agreed on a price! Yep, $6! We're high rollers!

When we were wandering around the Forbidden City, taking pictures along the way, a little Chinese couple came up to us and did some hand motions...we thought they wanted us to take their picture... in fact, they wanted to have their picture made WITH us! :) Yes, we stick out like blonde sore thumbs in a sea of otherwise Asian people.

Ron had arranged for a Chinese Sim card to be delivered to our hotel (sweet boy) so we were able to use my cell phone after we got here. I called him up, and we were able to meet up for dinner! It was good to see him after being apart for just over a month! We met at the Drum Tower, then walked down some street and stopped at a nondescript restaurant and had dinner.

It was interesting, but good. And cheap! It's a nice change for us to be able to have a Diet Coke for the equivalent of 50 cents, not $8 like in Italy! After dinner, we went our separate ways and took taxis "home"... and slept like rocks for 12hrs! We were tired...



That's all for now... going sightseeing and maybe to the Opera tonight! I'm having trouble with my computer (shocker!), so I'm updating from the hotel business lounge. If and when I get mine going, I'll post pictures.

Bye for now, and Happy Birthday Sarah Atkins!!