April 27, 2025
We crossed the international date line on our flight, so we landed at 4pm the next day. Getting our temporary visa at airport took longer than we thought it would. After being great on flight, the kids were getting restless waiting for visa.
We met our guide (Nancy) at the airport. She seems really great. She helped us to our hotel and got settled in room by 8pm.
We headed out to dinner across the street at Chinese place Nancy recommended. It was a great first meal. Nothing too exotic, but definitely got the ball rolling on our trip. The kids were clearly dragging by end of dinner. My first attempt at paying via WeChat failed.
Everyone made it to 10pm.
April 28, 2025
The kids slept too well. Surprisingly we had to drag them out of bed at 6:30am to get the day started.
After breakfast at hotel we took a 2.5 hour drive out to The Great Wall. The closest place to go to wall is actually just 45 minutes from Beijing. But we ended up grateful we took the advice of others and made the trek farther out. Instead of shoulder to shoulder tourists we only saw ~50 people entire time we were out there. Plus we got incredibly lucky to have a clear sunny day to truly get to see the scale of the wall. Even with a perfectly clear day, it went as far as we could see in both directions. It was really incredible.
We saw both repaired and original sections of the wall. We walked across some very steep and dicey sections, but we made it. The kids had a blast and acknowledged this was much cooler than the Grand Canyon and even the Bellagio fountain.
On the drive Nancy gave us some lessons in mandarin and Chinese history. She also answered our questions about life in current day China. The kids were shocked to learn that even first graders here have homework until 10pm each night and live under intense pressure. Nancy also spoke about the family dynamics of living in multi-generational culture.
We also learned the proper seating places for each of us when we sit down for dinner at a restaurant. Peyton is not on board with tradition that Owen gets the #3 seat (sitting to left of father) at the table.
One funny anecdote is when referring to us or Americans generally when speaking, Nancy wouldn’t refer to us as “white” or “European” or “american”. We were “big noses”, which she seems to mean in an admiring way, but Morgan takes offense.
Once back at hotel we took the kids to hotel pool which woke them back up. Then we found another Chinese restaurant for dinner where Owen and Morgan hit the wall. Peyton seems to not be impacted by jet lag at all (yet at least).
April 29, 2025
We headed to the Forbidden City this morning. We couldn’t avoid the crowds this time. Before entering we drove around Tianamen Square. We didn’t go in because doing so would have required a really long security line.
The Forbidden City was very impressive. The level of detail and craftsmanship shown across such a large scale. We saw some furniture from 600 years ago that was more impressive in the detail than anything I’ve seen before. The details on all the buildings were also incredibly well done.
Then we were invited into the home of Liu for tea and snacks. We spent roughly and hour with him. He talked about his life, being sent away to Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution, the lack of food when he was younger, and then coming back to Beijing.
Liu then became a trainer of obscure animals. Notably crickets, grasshoppers, and pigeons. Even though crickets only live 100 days, good crickets can fetch $10,000. Some Chinese people (even previous emperors) apparently loved to fight (and gamble) on crickets (it’s not a violent fight, the losing cricket is simply the one that hops away).
Liu and Owen made a connection (despite needing an interpreter). He was impressed by how little Owen feared the bugs and liked animals. Morgan was less interested in the bugs (see pictures). But she loved getting to pet their dog Tutu (the kids clearly missing Millie).
After a brief break we headed to our Peking duck dinner. It was delicious but we ordered way too much food. Another learning from trip is that Chinese desserts are not very good (at least to the taste buds of American children).
April 30, 2025
This morning we made a quick visit to the Beijing zoo to see the pandas. They were cute and fortunately and a few of them were surprisingly active. But in the end they were just pandas. We were glad we saw them, but also glad it didn’t take very much time.
Then we made our way to a market for some souvenir shopping. Nancy was a great negotiator for us.
At lunch I was finally able to execute my first proper digital transaction. I still can’t get WeChat working, but I was able to get Alipay up and running.
Then we headed for our kung fu lesson in the gardens of the Temple of Heaven. Morgan being so flexible made her the star student.
Following that we walked over to the Temple of Heaven. It was crowded and the wind and drop in temperature felt like rain was coming so we didn’t stay long.
There was a snafu with the time of our next activity, so with a few hours to kill Nancy took us to some of their local shopping malls. Here we could see several knock off western brands and products. Morgan found a copy version of her prized Touchland hand sanitizer.
Later we watched an acrobatics show. The audience was the largest gathering of westerners we had seen so far. Up until now, seeing westerns around town was fairly rare, but here we all found each other. The show didn’t disappoint.
Back at hotel kids were tired. We packed up for our flight to Hong Kong and headed to bed.
May 1, 2025
It is May Day (Labor Day) in China. After breakfast and some Mommy school we headed to airport and said our good-byes to Nancy. She was really fantastic.
Our short three hour flight to Hong Kong was a completely packed Boeing 777-900 plane!
We met our Hong Long guide (Sonie) at airport and he helped us to our hotel. After checking in, we walked around a bit to find some dinner. It’s much busier here. Not sure if it’s because it’s May Day or just Hong Kong (probably combination of both).
May 2,2025
After breakfast at hotel, met up with Sonie and headed to catch one of the old double decker cable cars. Hong Kong’s humidity was welcomed by our dry skin after the dryness of Arizona and Beijing. But it felt very hot.
We took the cable car to center city at the HSBC building. I never realized that in Hong Kong the government doesn’t actually issue the paper currency. It is the three major Hong Kong banks that issue the bank notes that are used as currency.
We then headed to the tram to go up to the peak. Given the holiday, the usual 10 minute line had stretched to over 2 hour line. Fortunately Sonie called an audible and got the van to come pick us up to drive up to the peak, saving us from a long, hot wait. Up there we got an amazing view of the city. We drove back down and then took Hong Kong’s infamous outdoor escalators for a snack at the old prison that has been converted into a museum. This was the prison where Ho Chi Minh was held. He was ultimately released and who knows how much that decision impacted the history of Asia.
Sonie then took us to another part of Hong Kong to see how many of the people still live and get a sense for what Hong Kong was like before the modern buildings were put up. Took us to a building where over 4,000 people live in tight quarters.
From there we headed out for a cruise around Hong Kong harbor. Getting a great view of both sides of the harbor.
None of us were that hungry so we found a quick udon noodle place near hotel for dinner. The food in China continues to be great.
May 3, 2025
Today we headed out to countryside to take gondola to a temple with the world’s largest outdoor Buddha.
Then we were taken the Hong Kong’s western most point to check out an old fishing village. They didn’t have enough refrigeration/ice. So the fish were generally dried out. We also got to see a search light and police station that was first line of defense for spotting illegal immigrants. Particularly during the cultural revolution, many mainland Chinese people were trying to flee to Hong Kong.
Then we went back to hotel for some Mommy school. While that was happening, Justin went out for a laundry run. It took awhile, but he eventually figured out how to get everything started.
May 4, 2025
We were up early to finalize packing and head to the airport. It was smooth sailing through airport and an uneventful flight to Tokyo.
We had an amazing time in Beijing and Hong Kong. We will definitely need to return at some point to hit Shanghai and some of the other areas of the country.
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