Took the bus to the night market, buses cost about .15 CDN and they're everywhere. They have conductors who take great pleasure in helping poor lost souls like us, no one speaks English here. Off early this morning to the Great Wall, but mother nature wasn't playing ball, we left the smog of Beijing only to end up in the fog in the hills. The wall is amazing but we missed out on what I'm sure would have been incredible views. At least it didn't rain!! We went on ...

We made it to Beijing, Air China likes to fill up their planes, very cramped seating and not an empty seat to be had!!! But we made it on time. Smog is shocking, it was thick when we landed and has been thick ever since. Finding our hostel was a challenge, the taxi driver got lost then we got lost walking though the Hutong. It's tough finding your way through little unmarked alleys in the dark but we got there (2 hours late). The hostel is great and in the middl...

First excitement, we got our boarding passes in Vanouver and they where for the next day. Aeroplan changed the flights but forgot to tell us!!! Lots of discussions are finally they got us booked on an Air China flight so we still get to Beijing on Saturday. So far we're staying in schedule, now for the long flight.

We left on Karla's birthday, it seems we always manage to miss her birthday. But we had a family dinner last weekend then a nice meal with her and Kelsey the night before we left. So lots of pre birthday celebrations.