3.19.09 We finally arrived in Beijing...

After over 18 long hours of flight over the Pacific Ocean, we have reached Beijing safe but exhausted. While we were in Los Angeles, we met Dale and Greg (also an adoptive family) who flew in from Missouri to LAX. We were on the same flight to China (China Southern, FL CZ328 non-stop to Guangzhou). We left from LAX at around midnight on 3/17/09 and we arrived in Guangzhou at ~6:30 am China time on 3/19/09. After going through the Chinese Immigration and Customs, we claimed our luggages and rechecked-in for our next flight to Beijing. We had to take a bus to board on the plane which is probably good 3 miles or so. We left Guangzhou at ~10:00 am and arrived in Beijing at ~12:30 pm. Did I mention, everyone is speaking to us in Chinese. Either they don't speak English or just thought we are Chinese people. too. :) The weather is in mid 50's so it is still kind of cold. We were met by Elsie who works for CHI China and brought us to the Radisson Hotel where we are staying for 3 nights before we leave for Nanchang on Sunday morning. She will be stay in the hotel on Saturday night and will go to the 3 cities with us. We finally settled in about 1:30 pm. We are in Room 727 with a queen size bed and a view of tall buildings. Later we met Dale and Greg who flew in to Beijing an hour ahead of us. We decided to walk to the Carrefour market to buy some groceries but mostly water and juice. Boy, that was a huge market, it was overwhelming. Oh and you know, you buy the grocery bag and you bag the groceries yourself. Right now we are back to the hotel and try to get some sleep before we'll have dinner with Dale and Greg. Henry and I probably only had 3 or 4 hours of sleep while we were on the plane.