About Beijing

I just wanted to talk a little about Beijing. 13 million people live here, it is very crowded at many of the tourist sites with both Chinese families touring and many other nationalities like Europeans, Australians and other Asians. I was here 9 years ago and the city has become so modern and trendy since I last saw it. Our hotel is downtown and our room is just as a standard American hotel room would look. But all around us are designer clothing & electronic stores. In the mall nearby there is Nike, Nine West, DQ, McD's, etc. Capitalism is what we see. We have also seen all kinds of construction related to the olympic games in 2008.

Our guide also talked about child abandonment being pretty rare in Beijing. She reports that traditional values still hold true in the countryside. But here in Beijing families are happy with a boy or girl, they live close together and both will help the parents as they age. In the countryside, families still prefer a boy to take over the farm. Things are changing very rapidly in China and I hope that means less children living in orphanages over time.

The Nguyen family on Tiananmen Square, very very hot, we are melting!

Nyla has a smile on her face for pictures, but is really crabby and hot! They thankfully held it together through the morning tour.

The Forbidden City, many many tourists here, have not seen crowds like this in a long time!

Lunch after sightseeing at a local Chinese restarant. The other 3 families traveling with us have been very patient with our children. Only 2 of the families are also traveling to Nanjing, we fly with them tomorrow! We are all excited to meet our children, they are all great families to travel with.