Back In Beijing

After our quick stop in Chengdu we flew to Beijing for one last night before heading back to the states.  The trip has gone by so fast and we are all wishing we had more time in Beijing.  We land in Beijing by noon and were met at the airport by Emily, our local guide.  She took us back to the hotel, where we had lunch with the former Director of Luoyang Children's Welfare Institute, where Christian was adopted.  Director Pei recently retired as Director, which I learned is more like a "forced retirement" due to age.  It was great to see him.

Christian and I with Director Pei

The whole gang with Director Pei

After our lunch we did some last minute shopping at the Silk Market, which is now inside a 7 story building.  The last time I went to the Silk Market (5 years ago) it was still outdoors near the US embassy.  It was quite an experience this time.  The shopkeepers were much more agressive than the last time.  You really have to be in the right mindset to go shopping here.  As soon as you walk in "lady, lady you need Polo shirts, Coach purse, Gucci...how about some Uggs?"  I got to bartering with this one lady and walked away when she wouldn't meet my price.  She grabbed me by the arm and dug her nails into me saying "Lady, you are being mean....come on...you got to be kidding...these are Chanel (sunglasses)."  I told her to get her hands off me and walked away again.  She immediately yells "okay, lady...fine...come back."  I wasn't going to come back but she came after me.  I paid her as she was saying "lady, how can I make any money when you won't pay me what it's worth."  I reminded her that they are fake and not worth much.  "what? you are kidding...these are not fake, lady.  Come on, lady."  Needless to say, we only could take about an hour of this and then went back to the hotel.

We had plans to meet Wen-Chun, the CNN Producer for dinner.  The guys decided they would rather shop longer so they passed on dinner (no, that's not a typo...the GUYS decided to shop longer and pass on dinner).  Kelly and I met Wen-Chun back at the hotel and he took us to a very nice Taiwanese restuarant.  We met up with the CNN reporter, John Vause and his wife at the restaurant.  They are all really nice and we had a lot of fun hearing about their experience living in China as ex-pats.   

Wen-Chun took us back to the hotel and we met up with Christian and Jamie to look at the video of our trip to the village.

Christian, Wen-Chun and me