Beijing - Day One

Ni Hao China!

What a long day this was! We left our house at 8:30 Wednesday morning and did not arrive to our hotel in Beijing until 11:00 Thursday evening (Beijing time). All flights were good, just very long. We have never been on a plane as big as the one from Detroit to Tokyo – it was huge! We each got very little sleep on the plane. We were told we could not site together because there were no more 2 seats together, but once we boarded and they closed the gate there were empty seats by me, so Michael was able to move. So glad for this because that was the longest flight ever. Can’t say I am looking forward to that 14 hour flight back with Isabella.
Once we arrived in Beijing, we expected our temperatures to be taken before we got off the plane, but they weren’t. Instead once we got off there were people with masks on and we were directed through check in and our temperatures were taken with infrared cameras. There was a family that was a few people ahead of us in line that got sent to the quarantine booth, but we did not sit near them on the plane. We got through all of that and I stopped at the restroom and saw my first squatty potty. I just couldn’t do it yet … I know I am going to have to at some point in this trip, but will wait until absolutely necessary. (Ha!)
We checked into our hotel, It is nice and in the center of downtown. Downtown Beijing is huge and we got to see it all lit up last night on our way in. We were able to finally sleep once we checked in last night. We are heading down to breakfast and then off to our introduction meeting with our travel group. Some families in our group have been here a few days. Others arrived yesterday (like us) and still others will come in a few days. We are also going to an acrobatic show this afternoon.
Thanks everyone for your prayers!

This is our last family of 4 picture! The next one be all 5 of us!

This was our plane from Detroit to Tokyo. We just had to take a picture once we landed because it is the biggest thing we have ever been on.