Monday, Feb 4, 2008

I'm now back home and wanted to post about our trip. I will try to do a post for each day with photos so you can see how all that we did and how M and I coped on the trip.


We arrived in Beijing around 3:00pm China time on Sunday, Feb 3, 2008. Our flight from Newark was one of the best flights that I've taken to/from China. This was also the first time that I've flown Continental (flew United on all my other China flights from Chicago). The plane was one with the individual TV screens on the seat backs. A great thing when traveling with a 5 year old. M was able to watch some kid programing while I was able to watch some movies. Having this entertaiment made the flight not seem as long as the 12 1/2 hours. M did well on the flight and probably slept about the last 5 hours. We were met at the airport by our guide, Susan and driver, Uncle Chen. We then went to our hotel, Courtyard Marriott, and checked in. We didn't do anything that evening except venture out to a local market to buy some water and other supplies. M ended up crashing pretty early and so did I. We both woke up pretty early in the morning too which made for a very long day on Monday.


On Monday we had a very busy schedule. This is the day I realized that it might not be a good idea to have so much planned on one day that involved a lot of walking especially when you have a 5 year old dealing with jetlag. As soon as we got out of the car at Tianneman (my spelling is probably not correct but you get the idea) square, M started to complain about being cold. I did have to agree with her because it was a little colder than I thought mainly because of the wind and I probably didn't dress her as warm as I should have (strike one for Mommy). This complaining was nothing compared to what she was like a little later

that day. After a quick walk around the Square, we headed towards the Forbidden city. The wind wasn't quite as bad and M did perk up a little bit for a short time. The Forbidden city is a huge area that to me seems to keep going on and on. To M, it was way too big because then I not only heard, I'm cold, but I'm tired, my feet hurt etc.. Hafway through, she also began to cry. In a way I felt bad because I knew she was just so exhausted from lack of sleep, but I really wished she could have gotten a little something out of the experience. I don't think she will probably remember the Forbidden city because of her breakdown and how miserable she was. She did recover a little when we were walking back to the car and I carried her for a little bit. After the Forbidden City, we headed to the Hutong for a Pedicab ride through the Hutong. M really liked that I finally got a smile from her that day. We had lunch in the Hutong at a little restaurant. We also climbed the Drum tower where you were able to get a wonderful view of the city. Due to the state that M was in, I asked to go back to the hotel so that she could get some rest before the Acrobat show that evening. M. slepted for about 2 hours that afternoon and slept the whole way to the acrobat show. I was able to wake her long enough for her to enjoy about 1/2 of the show and then she just fell asleep again. She ended up sleeping all night too which made for a happier girl the next day.

The acrobat show was amazing. I feel bad that M just couldn't stay awake because she was so excited to see the show. I did manage to take some awesome photos of all the different tricks for her to see later on. Below are some of the highlights of the show: