7-22, Day 3 in China

Day 3; July 22, 2012; Beijing, China

We had breakfast, packed and met Alice at 1000.  We were driven to the Summer Palace forty minutes from Beijing.  It was a beautiful, sunny day -- and a weekend.  It was VERY crowded.  It didn’t take long for us to get overstimulated.  The only thing that kept Nikolas from falling apart was asking to take pictures of all the cute children.  We took a nice ‘dragon boat’ ride across the lake after taking a walking tour of the grounds.  Time was running short, so we went to a McDonald’s prior to heading to the airport.  Holy people!!  It was CROWDED and not an American in sight!  We were all less than thrilled with our lunch.  Nikolas said “Chinese food is better than this.”  At the airport, Alice helped us check-in and we said our goodbyes.  This is where things started to go down hill.  The airport was very busy because of all the cancelled and delayed flights from the day before.  We waited at our gate until the boarding time came and passed.  Five minutes prior to our expected departure time for Wuhan, we had to change gates.  Then after half an hour they posted ‘delayed’ with no explanation (no one spoke English) and no updated departure time.  We waited for two hours before finally being bused to the airplane where we waited another half hour onboard.  The positives about the flight were 1) it was shorter than we expected (under two hours), 2) it gave us a chance to relax a bit, and 3) they served an unexpected dinner that was quite tasty.  We landed without trouble and were bused to the terminal.  (We saw many ponds and rice paddies as we descended into Wuhan.)  We were greeted by our new guide Joanna.  It was a forty minute drive to the center of the city where our hotel is.  It seems to be a very nice, clean city with beautiful buildings and landscape.  We checked into our 5-star hotel (Wuhan Jin Jiang International Hotel) and our room.  It is very beautiful and the crib was already waiting in the room.  We were very surprised when Joanna told us we would leave at 0830 for a 0930 C.A.B. (Civial Affairs Bureau) appointment to meet Emalie.  We were so surprised! Our itinerary said we would not meet her until 1500!  It was already 2100 by the time we checked in so we’ve had much to do to prepare for tomorrow morning.  It has been chaos!  It is now 2230.  Nikolas is finally asleep.  Sven is falling asleep.  I am wondering when I will again sleep!  This moment we have waited for six years to come is now here!  In less than 12 hours we will have sweet Emalie in our arms.  Goodnight our sweet baby, mommy, daddy and brother are here to take you home!  We already love you even though we have yet to meet you.  Goodnight, baby girl!

Sven wonders why I took this photo.  Really?  How often do you get a chance to capture a Chinese phone book?
Just imagine all the names in it!!

The change in weather brought a completely different feel to the city.
If only we could have gone back to the Wall for more photos......

Here Nikolas is holding a cicada.  Why is he holding a cicada you ask?
Because, a man on the street held it out for him of course.

Trivia question:  Is this lion male or female?
We are about to enter the Emperor's Summer Palace.

Beautiful, brilliant colors and intricate architecture.

The infamous lotus flower.

The Summer Palace

The Summer Palace

Yep, it was even hotter with no clouds to shield us from the sun.
But, it was a beautiful day!

 

I'd say Nikolas is ready for a younger sister, wouldn't you?
We had to finally tell him that we didn't have time to stop so much and take photos!
(Yes, I know, an odd thing to hear coming from me of all people!)

More girlfriends for Nikolas....

This is a marble boat (just for looks, obviously) that the Emperor had built so he could have a birthday party on it.

The bow of a functioning boat that we rode back to the other side of the grounds.

A man-made lake with the residual dirt to make a mountain to house the Emperor's Palace.

Lunch on the run in America or China:  McDonald's.
We were warned that it wouldn't taste the same....and it didn't!
Two minutes after I took this photo Nikolas told me he actually didn't like the burger and wished he could have had Chinese food instead!

Our descent into Wuhan.

Ponds and rice paddies everywhere....

Oh how long we've waited to get to Wuhan to meet Emalie!!

The plane that brought us to her.

When we landed at Wuhan at 9' at night it was still 98 degrees with very high humidity.  We had read a travel book about China that said Wuhan is one of China's "Three Furnaces" and advised against visiting during the summer.  Heck....what better timing than Wuhan in July?!  But after 6.5 years of waiting, we'd have gone even if we had to swim there!