We're Going to China!

Hi all!

That's right, as we mentioned in our last post, we are going to China this Wednesday (July 8). We are joining a group of adoptive families from Canada for a "Homeland Tour" of China. The group includes 7 families from across Canada, each with one or more daughters adopted from China. The tour includes seeing the sights of 3 cities, Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai. It actually starts on the weekend, but we are going early to visit some friends and see a few extra sites in Beijing.

Our friends in Beijing are people that have been involved in an intern program at the government ministry where I (Derek) work. Over the years they have come, two at a time, to learn how our Ministry works and to learn about Canada and Canadian culture. Many poeple at the Ministry have enjoyed showing them how our system and our culture works (or doesn't work?). And the interns have all said, "if you are ever in Beijing, you should look us up". Well, here we are..... Sounds like they have a grand tour lined up for us. Looking forward to aeeming them all again.



The Homeland Tour officially begins on Sunday the 12th of July. The map above (from Google Earth) shows the 3 cites we will visit on the tour (Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai), as well as the route/transport we'll take (white lines are flights, blue is a train). During the first 4 days of the tour we'll see the main tourist/historical highlights of Beijing: the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall, the Summer Palace and more. We'll then take an overnight train to Xi'an in the middle of the country. This historic city (over 3,000 years old!) is where the Terracotta Army was found. Can't wait to see that! After only a few days exploring the sites, food and culture of Xi'an we fly to Shanghai. We'll spend a few days there, exploring this unique, historic and modern coastal port city and then we fly back "home" to Korea.

It will certainly be an exciting 2 weeks. Probably be over before we know it. Will try to keep you posted. I've got 2 assistant photographers to help me now!

We are all excited. Lili of course is most excited about going to China.

Bye for now or perhaps I should say, "zai jian".

Derek, Deb, Jin and Lili

p.s. I've added some links to websites about China in a new section on the sidebar.