Nanjing

First, make sure you scroll all the way down as I added the pictures from Beijing today!

We started our day bright and early this morning leaving the hotel at 5:45 to catch our flight to Nanjing. The flight was basically all Chinese people, and us! It just so happened that the girl we were sitting next to was from California and came to visit family in Nanjing. So we had a translator on the flight! We arrived at the airport on schedule and met our new guide who immediately seemed to be very experienced. Later, she told us that she has seen over 1000 children be adopted in her 12 years working as a guide! I think we are in very capable hands :) After a very interesting van ride we arrived at our hotel the Nanjing Parkview Dangshan Hotel. It's actually quite nice. We were a little hungry so we went to one of the restaurants in the hotel for lunch. The hotel is a little bit away from the tourist area of the city and our guide recommended that we eat at the hotel, not at the restaurants in the area. We decided she probably knows best and went to the Coffee House for some lunch. We decided to go with some Chinese fare since we are in China! When we first sat the table had been set like you'd see it back home, with a fork, spoon, and knife. Brian and I ordered and within a couple of minutes the waitress came over, and without a word took all of our silverware, and set down some chopsticks! Luckily, we had a lot of practice yesterday. When you're really hungry you have no choice but to figure it out!! Lunch was pretty good, and we soon realized that the waitress would not approach the table unless we asked her too. We wanted to order some coffee, which by the way is VERY expensive here! A cup of coffee is about half the cost of one of our meals! Coffee must be an expensive item here because this was also true in Beijing. We went out for dinner last night and it only cost about $25 in U.S money. Then we went back to the hotel and Brian bought a cup of "mocha chocolate coffee" in the lobby of the hotel and it was about $10!!

Ok, a little about Nanjing. Nanjing is the capital of Jiangsu province. The city is approximately 2000 years old. It served as the capital of China for several dynasties and was the capital until 1949. "Bei" means north, "Nan" means south, and "jing" means capital. So Beijing is known as the north capital, and Nanjing is known as the south capital. The city wall around Nanjing is the longest of its kind int he world.

Here's some pictures. I have to go get ready to meet our little man tomorrow!! We will be meeting him at the civil affairs office at about 2:30. I'm getting a little nervous!!

*B, J, and El- I hope you had a Happy Valentine's Day! B and J- Hope you like the movies. B- I tried not to give you a lot of candy! Ella- how where you chocolate lollipops? I know you love them! Just think -tomorrow you'll get to see "little brother" on the computer!!

The beautiful ceiling in the lobby of the main building of the hotel
Lobby of the wing we are staying in

The view outside our window. As seen everywhere in China you see a mixture of old and new. In the background the tower you see is for the television station.

View of the pool outside our window. Of course, it's only in the 40's so it's not open right now. I guess, like Brian, they don't like the way it looks covered!