Monday, December 11, 2017

China Travel Part Two

I think there is no better day to blog than on this 6 month-iversary of having Nate as part of our family!!!  1/2 a year has flown by much quicker than the six months leading up to seeing him for the first time in person!!!!  So part two will include the two days of site seeing we enjoyed as a family of five as we acclimated to the time difference and prepared our hearts to become an official family of 6!!!

On Friday, June 9th (China time) we toured The Forbidden City and then we enjoyed a rickshaw ( tour in a Hutong.  What is a rickshaw and Hutong you ask?  According to Wikipedia "Rickshaw originally denotes a two or three-wheeled passenger cart,..., generally pulled by one man carrying one passenger."  "Hutongs are a type of narrow streets or alleys, commonly associated with northern Chinese cities, most prominently Beijing."  We ended that tour by visiting the home of a local family and they prepared lunch for us.  This was all arranged by our adoption agency and it was so interesting. 


           We toured the Forbidden City.  We felt like special agents because our guide gave us each an ear piece and as we walked he told us all about the things we were seeing.  There were quite a few of us in the group together so it helped us keep up with him while learning at the same time.









It was such a hot day and this was a group of people waiting to cross the street.  There were mass amount of people everywhere!



Once we were done with the guided tour of the Forbidden City, we were taken to the rickshaws and enjoyed a tour of a Hutong and ended with a lovely lunch at the home of a local family. It was absolutely delicious and they were so kind.








All of the walking and the heat made us a bit nappy, but after we rested and ate dinner, we decided to walk around by our hotel and take in the sites (and smells) of Beijing.












Good Night June 9th!!!  One day closer to Nate!!!



Saturday, June 10th brought a new adventure as we headed out to one of the Seven Wonders of the World-The Great Wall of China!!!!  Oh my goodness!!! 














Right before we left the Great Wall, Adam and Hannah enjoyed a cup of coffee.



Once we left there, we enjoyed lunch at a jade factory.  We watched a man carve some jade and then walked around a beautiful showroom of jade items.  They also had a restaurant and we enjoyed another delicious meal.






We drove by the Olympic Park on our way to our last event, an acrobatic show.  It was neat to see the area where the Olympics 2008 were held.  




And then.....the terrifying  exciting acrobatic show.  The photos won't do it justice...but you get the idea.  We all really enjoyed it.




There ended up being like 6 people on 6 motorcycles going around in this one cage!  It was insane and the part that scared me the most!!!



We were all so glad to have had the privilege to see just a small part of Beijing and experience some of the culture before we met Nate. But now it is time to regroup, sleep-although we are all so excited, and go get our son!!! Here we come Nate!!!

Stay tuned for more on our adoption journey.............




All photos were taken by Adam, Tiffany, Hannah, or Brooklin (Iphone and Canon 60D)