Beijing

Hi everyone;

We left Beijing last night (friday nite here) and boarded a sleeper train
for Xi'an.

Beijing was fun. We saw all the usual sites, Temple of Heaven, Forbidden
City, Great Wall, Tienanmen square. Denise and I had seen these when we
came before on our adoption journeys, but it was fun to see them with the
kids. Both of them agreed that the Great Wall was the best.

Christine and Lily have both made friends with the other girls in the
group. There is one 11 yo boy who seems to be enjoying being the only male
in that age grp. Christine has suprised us by trying some new foods
without being forced.

All in all a great trip so far. The only downside has been the heat and
the crowds. Also, air quality has been poor. Lots of smog.

The sleeper train was fun, even tho we didn't really sleep too well and the
bathrooms were smelled horrible!

It is great seeing something new (to us) in Xi'an. Its a medium sized
city, only 8mil people. Today we saw a 700 year old Budist pagoda, an art
museum and a Chinese muslim mosque. Tommorrow we go to see the Terra Cotta
warriors.

Only able to post via email right now due to chinese govt blocking inet
access to blogs. Makes no sense to me, but there you go. Will post more
from my bberry later.

Rob

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Sent by Rob Beal from my Blackberry handheld