Friday morning, December 12th, 8:00 AM in Beijing

We made it to Beijing! Wow, is that ever a long flight. Not as long as flying to Australia a year ago, but long nonetheless. We arrived at the hotel at about 10:15 PM local time and got a fairly good sleep. Today we are going to do some sightseeing in the city - Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and a tour of the old residential neighborhoods with courtyard houses that are called hutongs. We'll take our camera and take pictures to post later. 

We're feeling pretty good at the moment, but we've only been awake two hours. I'm sure the jet lag will hit later today.

In the car on the way from the airport last night, our guide told us the meaning of Hui Ying's name. "Hui" (pronounced hway) means "intelligent" and "Ying" (rhymes with sing) means "brave." We hope and pray that this little girl is aptly named since she will need both of these virtues in the days and weeks to come.