It is Monday morning. We arrived Sunday afternoon in Hangzhou after a 2 hour flight from Beijing. Hangzhou is on the central coast of China just south if Shanghai. It is the capital of Zhejiang province so it is where we begin our Chinese government paperwork. And most importantly it is where we meet Charlotte later today!
Hangzhou is a city of 7 million people. Even though it is huge it seems noticeably smaller than Beijing. Downtown is situated between the Qiantang River and West Lake. The lake looks beautiful - a picture postcard scene. Our guide in this city is Derek. He has gotten us situated and will help us on our paperwork.
A couple of more thoughts on Beijing. We visited Olympic Park and saw the outside of the "Bird's Nest" stadium (where Usain Bolt did his magic in 2008) and the "Water Cube" (where Michael Phelps did his). It was evident from talking to Helena that the Chinese took great pride in those Games. Also, Helena spoke a lot about the Chinese reverence for ancestors and elders, which is a tenet of Confucianism. She thought that the Confucius philosophy has been unfortunately forgotten in the Chinese drive to modernize, but she hopes it is coming back.
The next time I post we should have our baby!
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