Bye bye China

We had everything packed up by the time we headed to bed Friday night. Our lobby call was 5:45 am. All went well and we flew from Xi'an to Beijing. We had a layover of about 5 hours and the Air Canada check-in counter wasn't even open yet. We queued up our suitcases at the self check-in and sat where we could see them. The kids played cards and we hung out until it was time for security. Three of the four families were on the flight to Vancouver, the other family was flying to TO. More goodbyes.

Xi'an

After our usual buffet breakfast at the hotel we boarded our mini bus to visit the warriors. We stopped first at a terra cotta factory where we saw the process. These were the handmade ones, not machine made. They also had lovely lacquer furniture, bronze items and of course the normal tourist souvenirs as well. Next up...terra cotta warriors. The traffic was insane (again due to the holiday, which I believe was a 3 day one) and we told our guide it would be no problem to walk as we saw the line

Xi'an (arrival day)

Since we had a very early flight (7am) we arrived in Xi'an before 10am and could not check into the hotel. We stopped first to walk the almost intact city wall. Inside the wall was very different than outside. You can certainly tell that the buildings are a lot lower (there is a law to prevent high-rises) and much more traditional. It is 13.7 km around the whole wall. After this we headed to the Wild Goose Pagoda. There are still monks who live and worship here. It was very busy due to the

Last two days in Beijing

We are currently in Xi'an so once again I have to think back a couple of days...Tuesday was a lighter day as we were all getting a bit tired and we had actually covered mostly of the itinerary already. We headed over to a popular shopping 'mall' for westerners mostly. It had at least 5 floors, each with stalls/stores with a theme on most floors - food court, jewellery, bags/purses/luggage, souvenirs etc. All of us were getting 'best price' because we were the first customer of the day. LOL. We

Busiest day yet??

Our original schedule has been modified a few times due to foster family trips of the families with two kids. Understandably kids had things they didn't want to miss so we've changed things around. Luckily this isn't a big problem as we're based here in Beijing. We started Monday off at the Beijing Aquarium and zoo. My highlight was the jellyfish - I could have stood there all day. So mesmerizing! At the zoo we ran into a school group from Ottewell school in Edmonton! I didn't have much time to

Happy Easter

Luckily the wifi is working well enough to post...otherwise we get a couple of days past and I can't remember what we did! We had the Xinyu girls here quickly after breakfast for the world's smallest and Easter egg hunt but at least I remembered I had brought them! Sunday morning we headed out to a park to see local Beijing life. It was full of people walking, singing, playing instruments, doing exercise and generally enjoying the lovely warm weather (it's been as high as 28:). The trees are in