First day in Beijing

We received so many amazing generous donations that our suitcases were buldging and Shawn and I went to the airport with the expectation that we would have to pay an excess or unpack a few baby shampoos!! Our flight was fully booked and the check in lady was not amused when we arrived wanting to check in 4 very overweight bags. We explained our mission, hoping that that would elicit some compassion in her heart, but she kept telling us there were rules to follow... Silent prayers followed and the next thing we knew she was telling us to keep on adding our cases to the scales and off they went, down the travelator!! Wow, a miracle indeed as we were more than 30kg overweight!!
We had on our long haul flight, a deportee and it made for an interesting flight to say the least! The man was not pleased to be going back and there was lots of shouting, biting, screaming, pleading. He had 4 guards and he had to be pinned down and restrained a few times. We slept very little on the flight.
We arrived to a beautiful, bustling snowy Beijing and are happily installed in our hotel. After being taken on a mini-guided tour of the surrounding area by our own guide, we came back to the hotel and experienced a Chinese massage - a lot of pummeling and a great cultural experience of course! We also enjoyed a swim in the hotel pool, but being the only Westerners in the water we caused quite a stir and attracted an awful lot of attention, so we retreated to the Turkish bath.
We then both crashed out for a couple of hours sleep and headed to the main street to find food.
As always China is a mass of experiences and a cultural delight and we cant wait to see what the next two weeks have in store for us!!