Can’t sleep 5:00 AM Saturday, January 27th

It’s 5:00 AM Saturday morning, I can’t get back to sleep so armed with room service coffee, here are some early impressions of China.

The people are warm, welcoming and ever anxious to please. They are proud of their country and their culture. We were walking through Tiantan Park towards the Temple of Heaven yesterday and there were crowds of people everywhere engaged in all manner of group exercise and socializing. And it was 20 degrees F! From practicing tai chi to ribbon and sword dancing to chess games to people leading groups in singing chinese folk songs to a man writing Mao poems in water which turned to ice on the concrete pavement…everyone was involved in some manner of creative expression. I thought this somewhat paradoxical given China’s history of oppression and repression. Many people invited us to join in and Ira and I were challenged into playing a form of badminton with a few senior citizens. We feel safe and at home. Even the street vendors selling cheap souveniers are extremely polite and respectful about it.

The second impression is how Westernized Beijing is, far more than we anticipated. I’m not so sure it is a good thing but it is interesting to see The Starbuck’s, McDonald’s and 7-11’s here and there throughout the city. With the Olympics coming next year this Westernization will only intensify. I’m glad we had this opportunity to visit before the global onslaught.

So far our experiences have only reinforced how lucky we are to have been given the opportunity to adopt from China. We look forward to giving AiLi all the freedoms and opportunities we were afforded growing up in the US and at the same time we hope she will embrace those aspects of her Asian culture which will make her feel special and proud.

Karen