The wild, wild West

(now that I've got you with that annoying song in your heads...)

So by this time next week we will have completed our touring of the Beijing area.  Yes, Ian and I have been there twice already (on Kylie and Caleb's trips ~ Shanghai was our port of entry on Darcy's trip).  Yes, in those two visits to the capital city we've hit the highlights.  Yes, there are many other cities that we could have chosen to spend our "adjusting to the time zone" days that we'd like to explore.

BUT.

We knew that we'd have mutiny on our hands if our "big kids" didn't get to walk the Great Wall.  We've almost worn our our Big Bird in China DVD.  (I'm just hoping they won't be looking for Barkley while we're there).  So back to Beijing we go...

What's that got to do with the wild, wild West?

Well, nothing.

But by this time next week (taking time zone changes into account) we will probably be back in our accommodations in Beijing, reorganizing our bags for the real adventure of the trip.  Because a week from tomorrow we'll be headed to far west of the country to adopt our son!

There will be much about him in the days to come, but for today I want to take a minute to introduce you to where he is from.

Daniel's province (Xinjiang) is the largest in the country and from what it sounds, perhaps the most diverse.  The capital city, Urumqi, from all we have read, does seem to be a very interesting city with lively markets and many varieties of cuisine.  It was one of the stops on the Northern Route of 'the silk road'.  We look forward to exploring in this city of about 2.5 million.

photo credit ~ paul noll

But even more than checking out the city, we really hope to get out of the provincial capital to take in some of the sights of Daniel's province.  It is a part of China that not many visitors get to see.  From desert land to snow-capped mountains to many ethnic groups to camel riders to ghost cities to the history left behind the silk road, this is not what we've experienced on our previous trips.

photo credit ~ anne-laure py

Time will tell if our guide is willing to take us to more than our official visits in the city.  Trust me, we're gonna push as hard as we can!  Because there is too much beauty to miss just sitting in our hotel room.

"Heavenly Lake" photo credit ~ absolute china tours

I do find it interesting that while we were waiting for Kylie's referral my aunt and uncle sent me some books they had picked up when they traveled through China on one of their many adventures.  I poured through them at the time and then they sat on a shelf after we returned home as new parents.  Later they got packed and sent to storage along with most of our books when we prepared to move to our new city.  To be quite honest, I pretty much had forgotten about them.  Then just last month as I was opening boxes that we hadn't seen for 2 1/2 years, I found those books again.  Two were on Beijing and the surrounding area.  But the third?  Almost as if they knew.

Yeah, I think it's kinda neat too...