Today was a quiet day. Guy and I woke up around 6:00 am., mostly because we simply could not sleep anymore! We went down to breakfast in the hotel at a restaurant called "The Swiss Chalet". Breakfast was a buffet with a waffle station and an omelette station. There was also a section for bacon, silver dollar sized hash browns and brace yourself, baked beans!! There was a table with cut watermelon, cantaloupe and other fruits, as well as a bread table with different types of breads. The food was just okay. We are definitely not getting the omelette tomorrow. They didn't seem to cook it too well so neither of us finished it. The waffle was the size of an Eggo, but it was good.

After breakfast, we came back up to our room and started to reorganize all of the luggage. As I mentioned before, packing on Wednesday night was very haphazard. We reorganized everything and can now find what we need when we need it without tearing apart everything! This whole process took about two hours.

We then went down to the lobby and changed some money into RMB (Chinese money). Basically 100 RMB is equivalent to $12 US! Our guides advised us only to exchange money in the hotel because there is a lot of counterfeiting in China. They also told us not to travel with our passports, so we placed them in the hotel safety deposit box along with our extra cash and traveler's checks. It is basically our personal safety deposit box....we have our own key.

We went over to the grocery store again today for more water. No water in China is drinkable. Even the Chinese people don't drink the water. You only use the water for bathing so we keep a bottle in the bathroom for tooth brushing! Around 3:00 pm., we took a ride on the hotel shuttle into the city. The traffic is unbelievable. Speeding, bike riders on highways darting in between the speeding cars! I am so glad we don't have to drive while we are here! There is construction everywhere in Beijing. They are getting ready for the 2008 Summer Olympics. We don't know how the athletes are going to take all of the pollution. It really is difficult to breath here. Someone said that this is their change of season time so there is not much wind to blow the pollution away.

We met some other people on the shuttle who are in our group. They are here for their second daughter and will be on our Delight Tour tomorrow. When they got off, another family got on. This family will be with us the whole trip straight through to the orphanage. Their daughter is also at HengFeng SWI.

We are planning on meeting one of the families for dinner at some point tonight. Not many pictures today. Mostly around the hotel and some of our room.

More tomorrow.

Love Cathy & Guy

Next....Beijing: November 6th, 2005