Welcome to China

The Beijing airport was really nice, clean and... deserted.  It was weird seeing a major international airport so empty.  I guess not many people traveling at 3pm on a Wednesday?  The Starbucks, McDonalds and KFC there were good little reminders of home.  I got some nice pictures but they are on my phone... can't email pics to myself yet.

I was worried about the pollution and how it would affect us, but it wasn't too horrible that day.  It did feel (and still kind of does) like someone handed me a bag of cigarette smoke and chalk dust and told me to breathe it in, but all in all, not as bad as I was expecting.

Customs was a breeze, thanks to the special line that Nathan gets to go through.

Then we got all 12 pieces of our checked luggage (including car seats) and caused quite a spectacle when we went out through to the main area.  I swear cameras were flashing left and right.  Not everyday you see a white guy trying to manage 12 pieces of luggage walking with a Korean lady with a baby strapped on, pushing  a stroller with a toddler in it, while holding hands with a 6 year old, I guess.  (Ning- we tried to find the people to help us with our bags but no help was to be found!  Maybe because the airport was so empty when we arrived?) We left most of our bags at the baggage lockers and headed off to our hotel.

The Hilton Beijing Capital Airport Hotel was luxurious and the service was superb.  We splurged and got the Kind Duplex Suite.  It is spread over 2 floors (I think it was bigger than our apartment when we lived in Arlington) with 2 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and a living area.  I really wish I could have taken pictures of the place before we trashed it.  You can go and check out the website.  But the idea was so that we could rest.  And how could anyone rest with 5 people crammed in a little hotel room?  And rest we did, to the best of our ability.  We landed in Beijing at 3pm. (3am Eastern time)  We were able to stay awake until 8pm that night and we all crashed at the same time.  But at 10pm K woke up and was ready to go.  J woke up at 11pm and NJ woke up at 1am.  Party party.  From that point, everyone has been staggering their sleep times.  We just went with the flow.  Again, Nathan and I didn't sleep well.

The next day we had an amazing breakfast buffet and packed up to leave for Shenyang.  Nathan wasn't going to try and juggle all the bags on his own this time so he asked the concierge on how to best find help at the airport.  But the concierge assigned us one of their staff to accompany us to the airport and help us through the whole process!  Talk about above and beyond service.

I didn't realize this, but our flight to Shenyang required us to take a bus that shuttled us right to the airplane.  Literally, in front of it.  Then we climbed up some stairs directly into the airplane.  The problem was that we had our coats in our checked bags.  We were FREEZING and people were giving us looks of both pity and disgust, as Chinese people apparently believe that dressing too cold (especially kids) is one of the worst things you could ever do.

The 1.5 hour flight to Shenyang was way harder than the 13.5 hour flight to Beijing because the kids were SO jetlagged.  Tired, cranky, all three of them.  Fortunately, everyone passed out about 20 minutes into the flight.

We arrived in Shenyang on schedule and met our sponsors (fellow foreign service family) the Allens, who took us home.  Jen has been communicating with me for months, answering all my questions.  She stocked our fridge ahead of time and provided a meal for us the first night.  In short, she has been so amazingly helpful and we feel well cared for.