We're here!

We made it in last night without any troubles!  We had a nice long layover in Seattle, before the long hop over the pond.  Only slept a couple of hours which has helped a lot with us getting set in our new time zone.  I have to say if you want a nice inexpensive flight to China, Hainan Air is the way to go.  I felt like we were in first class except for the size of our seats.  Food was wonderful, service perfect and then when we were getting ready to land they came to let us know that we had a very tight connection in Beijing to GZ and that they had arranged for ground assistance to get us to our next terminal.  We had a little over an hour to get through customs, get our bags, change terminals and make our next connection.  We got off the plane and had someone meet us, take us to customs and got them to open up special lines for those of us with tight connections, arranged for a van to drive us to our next terminal, had our bags retagged and taken to a special counter to make it to the next plane.  Breezed through the security check point to have another agent waiting for us to then help us run through the terminal to our gate.  We made it and the flight attendants were nice and not even acting upset with us for making the departure late.  It amazed me at how much each person was kind and courteous in their part of the transfer.  I really think we could use some lessons on customer service.  This has been my best trip to China so far.

Landed in GZ about 15 min late and Grace was waiting for us.  We got checked into our hotel, Holiday Inn Shifu.  We are on an executive floor and our room is wonderful.  Huge bathroom and the bedroom area has tons of room.  I think we will be very comfy here for two weeks.  It's about double the size of the rooms at the White Swan.  We are right in a street market area.  We spent a couple hours this morning walking the market to see what we want to buy.  Found some of the cutest shoes for the girls.  Still looking for stuff for the little guys.  E really wants a DS but I think that is something he will have to wait for!

We meet up with Grace in a couple hours to exchange money at the bank and do a little paperwork.  She is so on top of things and so nice.  Tomorrow is Sophia day!