We flew Air Canada through Vancouver to Beijing. The flight was 99% ethnic Chinese, i.e. Sophie immediately had the experience of looking like everyone else. It took about an hour to get through the fingerprinting machines, immigration, and baggage claim at the Beijing Airport. It was a long walk to get from the plane to the first fingerprinting station, which was automated but the kiosks were glitchy so that took awhile. As we came in to land we saw rural forests of identical high rises all lined up and blocked together, as we descended into the heavy haze of pollution. We saw giant dams that were so huge, even from…

It is Christmas Eve 2018 and Sophie and I have just arrived in our hotel in Beijing China. We had a connection in Vancouver BC (Canada) and then flew across Alaska and Russia, then down into China. It took about an hour to get from the plane to the exit – with fingerprint station – immigration line – and retrieving bags. It is a big airport so there was a lot of walking from the airplane to immigation. Tomorrow we hit the ground running at 8 am, so we are going to try to get some sleep early. My eyes are getting very heavy so it is time to take…

In 2 days my daughter Sophie and I will embark on a momentous trip – a Heritage Tour to China. We will take a tour all around China to many famous sites and cities, then we will go to the town where she was found on the steps of a city building when she was 2 days old. I will try to post daily on this blog, so you can follow along. If I can’t post during the tour, I will write and save my diary posts and post them when we return to the US. Sophie is 16 years old, and a junior in high school. She is a…