Touring Beijing

Jan 15th

I had a great plan for the day we were in Beijing. I planned a low-key day resting in the hotel until our evening flight. When we arrived, I thought I'd tag along on the tour of Beijing for the day. When everyone else went to dinner, I would just head for the airport. So, I was very ambitious and changed the plans. This would have been great on a warm spring day. Touring Beijing in mid-January is very cold.
Also, the American idea of layering is a turtle neck, sweater and coat. The Chinese definition of laying is 4 to 5 thick layers.

Jackson and I were not dressed to do outside tours in 10 below weather. So, we are walking through Tienamen Square and the Forbidden City. Jackson is miserable. He screams. I HATE IT HERE. I WANT TO GO HOME. We are stuck in a tour and there wasn't much to do except carry him. Finally, it warmed up enough that he was excited to be in the Forbidden City. He pretended to be a secret ninja and took a lot of pictures. Thankfully, by 11:00 AM, he's enjoying the tour. We went to lunch at a jade factory and had a "tour" which was just marketing. This wasn't very kid-friendly, so Jackson and I watched the Koi in a nice fountain at the entrance. After lunch we went to the Great Wall, but now Jackson is really tired because of the time change and he sleeps in the bus. We took a picture in front of the Great Wall, but neither of us wanted to climb up to the tower on a windy day. I think I'll just go back someday with Rob on a nice spring or fall day. At that point, Jackson and I were just exhausted. A driver met the bus and took us to the airport.

Happy reunion. Rob was waiting for us at the gate. I was so relieved to see him! He got me a sandwich and a Diet Coke (only 35 cents for the drink) and it was great. Jackson was asleep again, woke up long enough to greet Daddy and then slept in the gate, on the flight and to the hotel.

Once we landed in Ji Nan, we were off to the hotel. It was very business oriented, lots of KTV, little English and not very clean. This would be home for a week. The room was really smoky, but the air pollution looked worse, so I didn't open the window the first few days. Eventually, I decided the air pollution was better than the smoke and aired out the room. I know this wasn't the best Ji Nan has to offer. Rob has work in Shandong province, and I've stayed in much nicer places. It seemed impossible to change hotels, so we were just stuck. Of course, I'm not expecting a vacation, and once I have Ethan in my arms, I won't care.