Entering the Dragon: A Family Trip to China

Well, we've finally made it to China. I didn't get a chance to post before we left because I was so busy getting everything ready for us being gone for two weeks. So far things are good. The flight here was actually pretty good for a 13 hour flight. Maya did pretty well despite asking me to go to the bathroom about 50 times. Once we got here I was amazed at two things. One was how many "western" style stores and buildings there were. It looks like any other major city in the U.S. with one exception, which brings me to my second thing I was amazed at. That is the pollution here. It's horrible. I can't tell if it's overcast today or if I can't see the sun because it's just that smoggy. Even if it is overcast, you can't see further than maybe about a mile or a mile and a half in front of you. After that, everything is enveloped in a thick fog of exhaust and dust.

Maya has only done so so as of yet. We had a lot of trouble getting her into this trip and every time we brought it up she would get mad. Now that we're here, she's been even worse. I'm not sure why she's being this way. I don't know if its just that she's tired from the time change or she really just isnt happy being here. Either way right now it's been kind of miserable for all of us. It's the first trip that she's been this way so it has taken me aback a bit. I can only hope that she starts to enjoy herself because we've got two weeks here. She is getting a bit of the celebrity treatment though because everyone wants a picture with her. We had the funniest experience today. She's learned how to say "nihao" which means hello so, of course, she says it to everyone. At one point she said it to a big group and, en masse, said "nihao!" right back to her. It was hilarious.


One bright spot is our hotel. It's awesome. We're staying at the Park Plaza and we upgraded our room to a suite which is really nice when we're here for a fully week. I feel like a rich person :). Really, though, the two rooms is nice because Josh and I can do other things while Maya takes a nap. There was a great buffet this morning and we all filled up before we went out to the Temple of Heaven which was beautiful. Maya and I even picked up a cool game that people were playing with these rubbery paddles and soft balls. Oh well, off to do more exploring!