Day one!

Day one in Beijing was packed full of tourist attractions and taking in all we could of life in China. We woke up super early this morning around 5 am and felt ready to go. Our bodies are having a hard time adjusting to the time difference.   We took a walk outside our hotel to pass the time and enjoyed breakfast at our hotel. It was a delicious spread filled with American breakfast items but also lots of Chinese food to choose from too. We met two other families from our adoption group also. Then are super nice and also traveling with some of their biological children. All of them are girls so far so that has been fun for Hannah! Our first touring spot was Tiananmen Square, followed by the Forbidden City. 

I thought the best part was the Imperial Gardens at the Forbidden City. It was really hot and humid the whole day and we were all dragging a little by the end but we made it through. It was really cool to learn about all the Chinese history in this area.  

The air quality is so poor here. I have never really put much thought into how fortunate we are to have clean air to breath but now I will!  The air feels so thick and hazy and hurts your throat to breath if you are outside too long.  One lady in our travel group noticed today that you can look directly at the sun and it doesn't hurt your eyes at all from being covered with such a thick layer of smog. 

Here's some of the sweet girls in our travel group with their fans. 

Next we visited a Chinese family in their home, known as a hutong, where they served us lunch. The food was so yummy. It was really interesting to see their homes and streets and hear how the people in this area live. The streets to the house were so narrow we couldn't take a car there so we rode there by rickshaw, which was a little carriage attached to a bicycle and a local man pedaled us there. It was quite the experience!

We had some rest time back at the hotel in the afternoon and Hannah enjoyed this huge bathtub, her "hot spa" she calls it. 

Then a well-known Chinese restaurant for dinner where we tried Peking duck and lots of other delicious foods. Hannah is eating lots of rice and figured out how to eat with her chopsticks!

It was a good fun day but SO different from our life back home. We are heading off to bed for a big day of touring the Great Wall of China in the morning!