2 and a half days of travel

Now in photos...

 Full of excitement to start the journey, the sign was compliments of my mother.  So much innocence on our faces, not knowing the extended delays and flights we would be encountering...we're here now though!  :)

 

 The airport send-off!

We spent a lot of flight time chatting, napping and watching the flight progress screens. Here's a direction we didn't expect to go, over the Atlantic.  Our initial thought was to go the other direction around the world because at least we were still moving closer to China.  How naive of us not to think about the weather problems in England!  My aunt had just mentioned to me on Sunday that Britain was bitterly cold and had recently had the earliest snow in 17 years.  What a surprise it was to them when we called and said we were at Heathrow.  So, after several security checkpoints, my mom ended up with a security pat down at Heathrow.  Apparently, a simple bracelet can trigger an alarm even though she had already been through several other checkpoints, and how an innocent, smiling grandmother could look suspicious was beyond us!  Just part of the adventure!

The "Please wait" on this sign cracked us up since we had already spent two days of waiting in airports!

Getting closer to Beijing was a welcoming sign!

Our first glimpse of the Chinese horizon, so many emotions, relief, wonderment, awe.

And this evening, this was a welcoming site, as we rest up for an early day out for the Great Wall, the Summer Palace and the Jade Factory.

The hotel is beautifully decorated for Christmas.  Oddly enough, a couple of the displays also have stuffed rabbits with carrots, uhm, someone is a little confused on their holiday decorating!