China

We returned from China on Friday, having thoroughly enjoyed two weeks of spectacular sights, delicious food, and the lovely and loving company of family. Overall, Zoe did pretty well on this trip; by now she was familiar with airplanes (indeed, whenever she sees or hears a plane overhead, she points and says the Mandarin word for "plane"), so she was reasonably well behaved on the flight. It helped that we had an extra seat on the flight from Los Angeles to Beijing, so Zoe could stretch out and sleep properly. Unfortunately Jackie and I weren't so lucky, and neither of us slept well. But our spirits were revived upon arriving in Beijing and reuniting with Mom, Dad, Ben, and Jackie's cousin Derrick.

For most of the first week, we were all understandably jetlagged -- I think I was hit particularly hard, and I felt like I was in a fog during the day. Zoe's routines were disrupted too, but we did our best to reset her with regular meals and naps, and she eventually settled down. In the meantime, we had a fairly free-form agenda, consisting of seeing the sights, dining at nice restaurants around the city, and taking naps when we couldn't go on any further. Fortunately, we had drivers to take us where we wanted to go, a maid to prepare meals for Zoe, and masseuses to make the aches and pains go away at the end of the day.

I won't go into a blow-by-blow account of all the things we saw and did, but I'll share the highlights. Of course, we visited the Great Wall (we chose the section of the wall at Simatai, in order to avoid crowds), the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and the Lama Temple. We met friends for meals and drinks, and got to see the "new" Beijing that has resulted from the fast-paced development of recent years (and that accelerated, obviously, with the Olympics). Whether seeing the old or new, I was impressed and a little overwhelmed by Beijing -- its size, pace, and energy.

One of the highlights of our stay was a side trip that we took to the ancient capital of Xi'an, about a 90-minute flight to the southwest from Beijing. We were joined by Jackie's brother Ben and his girlfriend Anna, and they were fine travelling companions indeed. In Xi'an we saw the famed Terra-Cotta Warriors, and explored the old Muslim Quarter of the city. Best of all, Ben took some amazing photos of our activities, which I've posted here.