We're in Beijing

READY, SET....GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We’re in Beijing at 2 p.m. Beijing time on Thursday, July 12, 2007. This is

Yes, we made it. Four flights, 30+ hours (you quite counting after awhile) and I can’t even tell you how many miles….me are in our hotel in Beijing.

Let’s start out with any “incidents” that occurred during transit.

(1) On our flight from Dayton to Denver, Steve discovered that we did not have our boarding passes for the flight from Denver to LA. He guessed that the gate attendant at Dayton kept them with the other boarding passes. We have about 1 ½ hours to make our connection in Denver. So we charge to the Customer Service Desk and request new boarding passes. It seemed to confused the United Airlines employee and she had a hard time finding our names in the system. Of course it would have helped if she would have been looking at the correct flight. I guess handing her out itinerary and future boarding passes with our names wasn’t enough. That crisis was averted and we started into the second leg of our trip.
(2) LAX (LA airport)….can’t seem to locate the China Southern gate. The original gate we were waiting at during our 4 hour layover, was assigned to a different airline and they couldn’t tell us where our gate was at…hmmmmmm???? FINALLY, after much harassing from Steve, he discovers that the gate was moved to the other end of the terminal. So off we go with about 200 other people that are taking this flight. We get to the other end of the terminal, at said gate, and they tell us that it’s not our gate either and that our gate was actually the gate we just left.. Holy Cow! Fortunately, boarding wasn’t supposed to occur for another hour. After standing among the masses at the LAX international terminal and discussing our dilemma (with no courtesy phone in sight). FINALLY, someone comes over the loud speaker telling us that our boarding gate is in fact the one we just left and the other airline was moving to the next gate. Geez!!!!
(3) Time to board the China Southern Flight for Guangzhou and we have to board a bus to drive another 10 minutes to the plane. We get on the plane (after the chaos of disembarking the bus) and realize that a piece of our carry on luggage was left on the bus. UGH…so off I run to try to stop the bus and fortunately, some very efficient person pulled the bag off the bus and it was waiting for me outside the airplane door. Shew, what a relief.

The flight was pretty uneventful from LA to Guangzhou (13 hours). It boarded at 10:30 pm and took off at after midnight (which is 3 a.m. our time). Elise has not slept too much, so you can imagine how she’s doing. Finally, she curled up into my arms and fell asleep BEFORE the plane ever left LAX. She slept about 6 hours.

Aunt Candy and Elise looking at the airplanes at LAX

We met another family from California (Shannon) and their family that are traveling to adopt their fifth child. It was great fun because their daughter, Nina, is just a few months older than Elise and by the time the flight was over, they were great friends. We hope to meet back up with them in Guangzhou at the White Swan.

Elise's new friend, Nina....

Can’t say too much about the China Southern flight’s service. We flew business economy and had bulk head seating. We were very comfortable, but it was difficult to get another water, drinks etc out of the attendants. Most of them changed out of their flight clothing and into street clothing after the flight took off and they served dinner. It was difficult to find one to help you after that. We hoping that the flight home will be better since it’s during different hours of the day. Maybe that’s normal service for that late night flight. I was just used to the service we got from North West the last time, it was exceptional and it was economy class.

Once in Guangzhou and after checking through customs and starting our “sweating” weight loss program, we got drinks and headed for our final flight to Beijing. The flight was full and I won’t go into details. Let’s just say that some people like to stare and I wondered if I had food on my face or something…GEEZ! I couldn’t even stare a "starer" down….It even ticked Steve off.

So, we are now in our hotel, the Novotel Peace and it’s very nice. Old, but nice. We have this great corner room with a little sofa for Elise. She’s watching a DVD right now and I’m going to throw her in the tub after I take a much needed shower. Then we’ll be off to explore around the hotel. We’re trying to beat the jet lag. We start our touring tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. I think we are heading to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.

I’d forgotten about Chinese hotel rooms having door bells. That always tickles me!

Finally, I have my pants off and I'm watching my DVDs!

My sister and stepmother did great on the flight. I’m so glad they are here with us. It’s going to be a wonderful trip. I’m smiling just thinking about it.

What can I say, they couldn't wait to get into the goody bag and relax! Of course it was 3 a.m. in the morning and we started traveling a mere 12 hours earlier.

Don’t forget…WE LOVE EMAIL. I’ll save them all and print them out for Amelia’s Lifebook.

Much love from Beijing,
Steve, Kim, Elise, Lisa and Candy

PS We're having some problems psoting to the blog. Please let us know if you can see all the photos and postings!