We’re getting ready for our trip out to the Great Wall, and it sounds like the jade factory, too. Our guide Nancy said she was going to keep us very busy today to help us get over our jet-lag. We’re all feeling much better after getting 12 hours of sleep last night. I guess the bright side of not sleeping on the flight over is that you get adjusted to the new time quickly. Max is feeling much better this morning. I think I forgot to say yesterday that he gets motion sickness sometimes and our landing was a little rough. I was able to get the two pictures to load on the post yesterday, so you can see them there or by clicking through to Flickr on the right. One of the view from our room, and the other is our lack of success at keeping Vincent and Gregory awake. They kept trying to lay down on the marble floor in the hotel lobby while Nancy was getting us checked in.

Our first impression of Beijing is that it was not nearly so urban as we were expecting. I could see farmland outside of town as we landed, and the entire drive to the hotel there were lots of trees to be seen along the roads. I was expecting the buildings to be crammed together like New York City (not that I’ve been there either) but there is a lot of landscaping, and even the traffic isn’t as nonstop as I thought it would be. It is not noisy in our hotel. Okay, time to go now!