Beijing wed 7am.
Good Morning Beijing:

With a wake up call and some bad instant decaf in the room the three Kalfins arose to greet the day and to get ready for their adventure to The Great Wall of China.

We made it downstairs for the St Regis buffet at 8:15 and after we were well fed met our tour guide “Demi” as in “Moore” and our driver Gore as in “Al”. We hopped into the car and were on our way. About a 2 hour drive out of the city and into the country with a stop at a well known cloisonné factory.
Why is it whenever you go anywhere in the world and are taken on a tour where there is absolutely no obligation to buy anything you always end up opening the wallet and spending money….and your personal tour guide always plays a big part in this and probably gets a kick back. It doesn’t seem to matter how savvy you are there is always a little souvenir.
At this particular place the tour was actually short and interesting. A good thing as there is nothing worse than being stuck in a room for an hour listening to the history of a craft that you could care less about. And yes we did find some beautiful Cloisonné gifts for ourselves. A cloisonné picture of a mummy and baby panda riding a bike, a burgundy vase for the mantle, and a dog ornament for the Christmas Tree……suckers!
Off to the wall. Another 30 minutes and we were there. The entrance to our particular section of the wall was one long narrow street filled with extremely aggressive gift vendors, all hawking every conceivable Great Wall gift item at unbelievable prices.
“2 T-shirts one dollar” was a common call as the product was thrust at you and your way was blocked at the same time.
Gore had dropped us off and would wait by the car in the parking area. It was time to use the baby sling and Alia kicking and screaming was lowered into this contraption so that she could be carried on my back.
Now you must remember that we were not in Guangzhou anymore with hundreds of other adopted babies but we were in a part of China that was not used to seeing this particular scene. Everybody was fascinated by us, the white American family with an adopted Chinese baby, mostly curiosity mixed with signs of approval. Some folks were outright touched. I guess it depended where we were and what we were doing at the time. However when Alia is in a sling on my back having a tantrum and trying with all her might to backbend her way out of it we do garnish many concerned stares and comments in Chinese.
The culture in China absolutely dictates that a crying baby girl is never ignored and always paid attention to……by her mother.
The experienced western parents that we are know better and we are confident that after 10, 20 or 30 minutes of wailing our baby will stop crying and relax in the sling. Making the way up the steep crowded road through the vendors to the cable car with Alia screaming all the way made us the center of attraction and certainly made our guide “Demi” uneasy.
Finally into the cable car and Alia back into mummy’s arms. No problem there as we were whisked high up into the mountains and the stunning scenery that is the Great Wall and it’s environs.
Off the cable car and back into the sling and more wailing. The Great Wall stretched for miles around us as it climbed up and down, in and around the surrounding mountains.
Truly a stunning sight. Jill, Alia, Demi and I made our way up some steep stairs and stood on the great wall.
We started to walk the wall, not an easy task as the wall slopes up and down, sometimes with no stairs, sometimes with tiny mini stairs and sometimes with very steep 2 foot high stairs. Jill and I looked way into the distance and far away almost into the heavens preceded by a never ending stairway to heaven was the infamous 24th watch tower. Even with Alia on my back Jill and I knew we were going for it.
The four of us started on our trek. Demi was becoming very uneasy with Alia’s crying and tried to take her out of the sling but Jill assured her she would be OK. Shortly after that Alia stopped crying and started to enjoy the ride. A few minutes after that Demi bowed out and told us to go on ahead. Jill and I looked at our goal in the sky.
“Is there a time limit on this tour?” I asked Demi.
“No, take your time” she replied “No time limit”.
With that the three of us waved good bye to Demi and started our arduous mission to reach the 24th watch tower.
You know how sometimes a goal is in sight and seems within reach but you can travel for ages and it never gets any closer? Well two days later with our limited water supply almost drained and Alia’s weight almost breaking my back we reached the summit just in time for sunset. After celebrating the end of the day on the 24th watch tower we returned to business and pitched a tent for the night. We would need a good nights rest to prepare for the two and a half day journey back to the cable car. We hoped that on this night that the temperature would at least stay above freezing.
Well………. OK I romanticized this adventure just a tad. It actually took us about an hour to get to the summit, not an easy walk with the last 20 minutes being one long very steep stairway that climaxed with an even steeper thin stairway consisting of maybe twenty, two and a half foot stairs with uneven footing. As I led the way on those final stairs with Alia remaining quite content on my back a group of Chinese students reached down for me and practically pulled us up those final few stairs to the summit. Their generous hands were offered to Jill a few moments later.
As I was trying to regain my breath I noticed that 4 women were holding an impromptu worshiping ceremony offering incense and fruit to Buddha. They were facing the continuation of the wall that was not accessible to the public as this particular part had crumbled. At the same time the students that had helped us up surrounded us and admired our baby. They were fascinated and touched that we had adopted her. An older Chinese man who was also there offered to take our photo. He did and then we took some pictures with the students.
There was a lot of love and peaceful feelings that transcended race and religion on that summit that day on top of the 24th Watch Tower.
An hour or so later we were back with Demi and on our way back down in the cable car.
Once back on lower ground, Alia once more in Jill’s arms we made our way through the vendors back to Gore and the car.
Having had such a spiritual moment on the Great Wall and not being able to resist a bargain I decided to purchase the “2 for a dollar” t-shirts. As I’m sure you guessed this was a big mistake. Of course they were not going to sell me 2 for a dollar.
“80 Yuen”
“You said two for a dollar!”
“80 Yuen”
“No thanks” I started to walk away but realized that I was alone; Jill and the gang were no where in site. I started to search for them but to no avail, all the while being chased by an angry lady desperately trying to sell me these t-shirts.
I decided that the best thing to do would be to wait where I was by the parking lot and that my family and guide would return. In the meantime I was besieged by the lady who was dropping her price by 5 Yuen every 2 or 3 minutes.
By the time I was rediscovered by Demi who had taken Jill and Alia to the upper parking lot the lady had lowered her price to 25 Yuen for two. I stubbornly refused this great offer and joined the rest of the folks in the car.
To put this in perspective her original offer for 2 t-shirts at 80 Yuen equated to about 10 bucks. Her final offer of 25 Yuen about $3.25….over triple the two for $1 price she was hawking! All silly money really. But it’s interesting how one looses perspective when many items are much cheaper than in the states. Most of us hate to get ripped off no matter what we can afford.
Back to the hotel our daughter’s schedule once again shaken up she became quite cranky.
Once in the room at around 4:30pm I put mother and daughter to bed while I took a short walk around the area and to Starbucks. The Beijing that we were seeing was a huge bustling city full of massive construction, modern skyscrapers and many American fast food restaurants and chains. Not much of the old world was in sight and from what I had heard what was left of that world was disappearing quickly.
Our plans for the evening included going to an area called “Back Lake” for a drink and then on to a well know restaurant near Tiananmen Square for a meal.
We left the hotel at about 6pm and it took us almost an hour in the horrendous Beijing traffic to get to “Back Lake”. In the non air conditioned car Alia never stopped screaming, thrusting and wailing in my arms. Her poor world had been shaken up to the nth degree. Never been in so many cars, an airplane, different hotel rooms. Where are we going now? Poor girl.
Ratty but quiet back in Mum’s care we finally arrived at our destination. A pretty area on a large lake surrounded by restaurants and bars. Jill and I had a couple of drinks but Alia did not last long and we thought it best to go back to the hotel and order room service.
That’s what we did and Alia was back to her normal happy self as we had a great Chinese meal in the room.
After dinner as I took an hour to deal with a work issue that came up Alia fell asleep next to Jill on the bed.
That night she slept between us and as usual she slept peacefully through the night.
We both realized that tomorrow would be another hard and confusing day for our baby and although we had no regrets about our day at the Great Wall we were both looking forward to bringing her home to Montclair and starting her new life in the USA.

Thursday – Final Day In China.
7am wake up call. Breakfast at 8:30 and taxi to Tiananmen Square at 9am.
I won’t dwell on the morning activities except to say that Alia stayed in the sling most of the time as we walked through Chairman Mao’s Tiananmen Square and then to a very quick tour through the Forbidden City.
Back to the hotel to pack and bathe ourselves before our trip to the airport, unfortunately we soon discovered that both the Hotel and the entire district had no hot water. A major bummer facing a 13hr flight.
Not much we could do about it so we made the best of a bad situation and then off we went on our final ride in China to Beijing Airport.
Getting through customs, immigration, security and the additional security again was quite a task. A task made a little more difficult with a cranky baby whose nap time it was as well as traveling with 2 US passports and one Chinese one, and every bag being checked for liquids and gels including all those cream and wet baby items that mums tend to carry around with them. But we did make it through, and although we were pressed for time it was important to me that Alia had her first inaugural drink in the first class VIP lounge. She loved it and will never accept anything less,
Once on the plane we took our two business first bulkhead seats and were delighted to see that the couple across the isle on the right were traveling home to North Carolina with their 10 month old adopted baby. We were not alone.
Jill and Alia sat on the floor playing while the plane loaded up, and when it was time for take off we repeated the Alia noodle stuffing and we had no problem.
We were finally on our way home.
Once we leveled out the flight attendant set up a bassinet for us that attached to the bulkhead wall. A couple of hours after take off we put Alia down in it and she fell fast asleep.
I was on baby watch while Jill was snoozing, that was when Alia started crying in her little bassinet. I watched to see if she would go right back to sleep again but instead she sat strait up. I was scared she would fall out so I rushed to undo my seat belt, move my computer and tray table and get to her. Just in the nick of time I grabbed her and walked with her down the isle. That lasted about 45 seconds before she started wailing and kicking and thrusting to get away from her daddy. We only had another 8 and a half hours of flight left. The only way to stop the crying was to hand her back to mummy.
As I type this she is asleep in mummy’s arms.