We finally made it to Beijing. We've been up 48 hours, and 35 of those hours were travel. So, while y'all have had two nights' sleep, we are just now getting to bed. We have broadband in our rooms, so here's the first post...

Before - at Glacier International Airport

After - in our room at the Sino-Swiss Hotel in Beijing.

Already our adventure has spawned several subplots: we've all four been crammed for 14 hours into less space than is allocated for a typical burial, unknowingly ingested strange foods, nearly got conned out of some cash, lost and found a plane ticket, and discovered that we're the only English-speaking people in the Guangzhou Airport. In spite of all this, we're beside ourselves with excitement! Sights, sounds, tastes and smells are still very foreign to us (except for the unretouched episode of The Simpons, in English, on channel 10).


Regarding the flight: I'll include this scattered post I typed up last night:


OK, so we're floating above the Pacific in a Boeing 777 at 32,000 feet, traveling at Mach 0.9 - it's 3:11 AM back home in Montana. Thank God for coffee, but I digress. There is an LCD display in the back of each forward seat. There are movies - all but one in Chinese. One flick was filmed in Spanish, dubbed in Chinese, and subtitled in English. Because the seats were designed for people with a 23" inseam, the screens are two inches from our faces, and that's with the seatback in front of you in the upright position. This is China Southern Airlines simulated wide screen at it's best!


The flight is proving to be "interesting" in the way the Chinese use the word. If you ever come this way, I offer two words of advice: UP-GRADE! The seats are reasonably spaced in Business class (aka "Premium Economy"), but in Coach, they are 4 for 3 the length of the airplane and 4 for 3 the breadth of it. In other words, in Coach 16 seats are crammed into the area occupied by 9 business class seats. I got through it by thinking of what it might have been like to be Bill Bartel or Travis Pine.


We got to Guangzhou at 5:30 am, local time. It was like a gigantic natural sauna, and this was the "cool" of the morning. Our arrival pic illustrates this nicely - the camera lens was fogged up before Jason could snap the shot.

On the tarmac, Guangzhou, China

The Guangzhou Airport is brand-spanking new - it opened the 5th August. This fabulous facility hasn't quite caught on yet, and is somewhat understaffed. One would-be staffer tried to get us to pay him our dollars for the airport tax certificates. He wasn't so bright however - he offered us an exchange of 10:1 RMB for dollars. He just wanted the dollars. He kept pestering us, trying to make like he was going out of his way trying to help us out. Finally we managed to ditch the guy. We wandered around for more than an hour looking for someone who spoke English, trying to settle what turned out to be a very simple matter - pay 50 Yuan for the airport tax. We finally ended up where we started - at the international transfer counter, exchanging some dollars for RMB to pay the tax. The poor fellow manning the exchange hunted for the keys to the cashboxes for a good ten minutes.

At the currency exchange, Guangzhou Airport, while the staff searches for keys

The new Guangzhou Airport

Michelle, Ken and Kimberly watch a bicyclist tote 6 passengers on the street below

Now it was time for breakfast. In a massive new airport, we went to the one and only recognizable restaurant. The menu was Chinese-only, so they brought items to us a la carte. This was not much help, as nothing looked familiar. No noodles, no rice, except for rice gruel (flavorless). After several taste tests, things weren't going so well. Michelle was so excited to see sweet and sour chicken! "I can do this", she said confidently. With great gusto, she picked up her chopsticks and dug in. The first crunch was like eating juicy gravel. She stopped and said, "It must be a bone." Undaunted, she tried the other end, with the same result. As the rest of us got ready to join her, Jason notices the peculiar anomaly of webbing between scrawny toes, Kimberly exclaims, "Hey I remember this - I know what these are - they're CHICKEN FEET!". We managed to maintain our composure amidst a few stairs from our neighbors, long enough to document the experience.

The fortune reads, "That wasn't chicken."

After an unsuccessful search for a McDonald's with which to wash down our breakfast, we made our way, taxes paid, somewhat less hungry (for various reasons) to the boarding area. Upon our arrival, the others in our group inform us that the fellow who checked us through from LA to Beijing was frantically looking for a certain "Jason Birdrewr". It seems he inadvertently lifted Jasons ticket home when he took the ticket for the Guangzhou-Beijing leg. We managed to get it straightened out, so Jason will be able to come home after all.


The flight to Beijing was largely uneventful. We were met at the gate by a very competent and enthusiastic guide, "Cindy", who conveyed us to our present location at the Sino-Swiss. The rooms are comfortable and functional, if somewhat worn and dated. At Cindy's recommendation, we walked down the street to a local restaurant, The Hot Pot, where we shared a wonderful meal, which we prepared ourselves at our table from ingredients selected from the menu. These we placed into boiler pots heated by a sterno-like material. Whole shrimp (replete with eyeballs), beef, cabbage, noodles, mushrooms, and mizo-garlic sauce were all quite satisfying.


We're doing great - safe and sound. We're the closest we've ever been to our babies now. Only one day and a wake-up away from having the little bundles in arms! Tomorrow will be a full day of touring Beijing: Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, and The Great Wall in the afternoon ("BHU HAO!").






We'll post more tomorrow - please keep us in your prayers. We love and appreciate you all.


Kenny, Michelle, Jason and Kimberly