Beijing

Well after trying and trying I still can't get any pictures to upload. I am so bummed about it....but I can still type so that is what I will do. My first impression of China.... was at the airport and then driving to the hotel. Where to start...lots of cars, people, different smells, food vendors on the street, we are the minority, no English!! It seemed very surreal! Very Cool! Wow we are in China! When we walked outside to get in our taxi I noticed a little boy walking with his mother and the only thing he had on was a shirt! Then there was all the cars...everywhere...and as we drove to the hotel out the window I see Chinese writing on all the buildings and all the people walking along the streets. Riding in the taxi was an experience!  We were so tired on the way to the hotel that it was a little difficult to focus on our new surroundings as we were both fighting our heavy eyelids. Upon arriving at the hotel our guide showed us to our room which was very nice and suggested a few restauraunts for us to visit. After he left we were so tired that we just decided to go to bed since we knew we would be climbing the great wall the next morning. Yipee!! So we went to bed without dinner and got some good sleep in...but we woke up about 4:30am as our bodies had not adjusted to the new time zone. We had plenty of time to get ready and head to breakfast and then we also had time to skype with Ian, Mimi, and Grandpa Bill. At breakfast they had some different things but I stuck to waffels :-) After we finished breakfast we met our guide Linda (who was an excellent guide) and she took us to the Great Wall. The drive took about 45 min. Upon arriving at the great wall I noticed the huge mountains and then the wall climbing up the mountains VERY COOL! When we got to the Great Wall climbing it was harder than I thought..one because of all the people it is very crowded and two the steps are uneven and dangerous and very steep. After making it to about the 6th tower we decided to make our way back down (we were pressed for time because we had to meet our guide for lunch) and it seemed going down was a little bit harder than I thought..(kinda scary) anyway we made it to the bottom safely and headed off to lunch. Lunch was great our guide ordered for us a ton of food and it was fun trying the different things. I am terrible at eating with chopsticks though. After lunch we went to Hutang Lane and it was very cool! I got lots of pictures and video of everything so I can't wait to post it all! Then on Saturday night we went exploring and walking around Beijing. We went down what is called snack street. It was quite an experience! Scorpions on sticks still moving, piles of squid, mystery meat on a stick, and smells so bad you can't even imagine...let's just say we lost our appitite after that little tour. But of course I got it all on video for all of you :-) On Sunday we flew out for Guangzhou, met our guide and then got settled into the China Hotel. The China Hotel is amazing! There are shops, and several restauraunts in the Hotel itself. It also has a kids area and really nice pool. After taking a look around the Hotel we unpacked and got ready for Gotcha Day! They even had a little bed for Meili set up for her. Close to our hotel is a McDonalds!! Thats what we had for dinner :-) Then we got a good nights sleep because we knew that Monday was going to be a BIG DAY!