Guangzhou

Today we visited two of the temples that we visited with Lily when she was a baby.  Brought back good memories!  Luckily for us, it was not as hot as it was back then!  Later we visited Shaiman Island where the White Swan hotel is and the friendly little shops that we visited back during Lily's adoption.  It was nice to see some of the shops still exist.  Some of them have closed, but enough are still open to make it worth the trip.  Also seeing the White Swan in total reconstruction was sad.  All the sights and sounds of the old hotel are now gone but in our memories and "gotcha" videos.

Tomorrow we visit a middle school and do a little more shopping before leaving on Saturday for Hong Kong.

Arriving in Guangzhou

We arrived in Guangzhou this afternoon. It is actually cooler here than Xian. Xian was at 100 degrees every day we were there! Tomorrow we visit a few temples and Shaiman island. This part of the trip is for Lily to see the areas she has only seen on video from her adoption trip. Its hard to believe its almost been 13 years!

Xian

Sorry for the delay in posts. Our Xian hotel internet did not work most of the time. During our visit to Xian, we visited the Wild Goose Pagoda, Xian Ancient City Wall, Bell Tower and the Terracotta Warriors. The history of Xian goes back 3,000+ years and we barely scratched the surface. It was very interesting! As always, the Squatch was lurking about!

Xian bound

Well, we are off to Xian via high speed rail today. So it may a day or so before I can post again. Hope everyone is doing well back home!

Great Wall and Birds Nest

Today we visited the Great Wall of China. Lily & Dad almost made it to the top! Man those steps are tough especially when they are so uneven. After the wall, we visited the 2008 Olympic Village where the Birds Nest and Water Cube are located. They are a lot bigger in person! Last night we went to a Peking acrobat show. It was pretty good, but we had a hard time staying awake after such a busy day.

First tourist stops in Beijing

Today, we visited Tiananmem Square, Forbidden City and a cool Hutong tour where we got to ride on rickshaws thru old Beijing and visit some homes. Lily is really enjoying her time here. Also the other families we are touring with are very nice and can tell are anxious to get their new little ones.

The Bittners have arrived in Beijing.

The Bittners have arrived in Beijing.  The flight never seems to get shorter or easier to do!  When is someone going to create a teleporter via Star Trek style! Lily is excited to see China so far.  The rest of us were dead-dog tired upon getting to the hotel and Lily was bouncing off the walls.  She let us get a quick nap before eating supper. Today we will be going to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  Then take a Hutong tour of the old part of Beijing.