China- Day 1

We left our house early Wednesday morning, April 8th, to meet my parents in Boise. After a five hour drive with the kids, we met at Red Robin and dropped off Ethan and Ella to go to Utah. Kent and I then caught our first flight from Boise to LA to meet up with Kent's family to fly to Bejing, with a layover in Korea. The flight was very long but we made it. Since we flew through the night, we arrived in Beijing in the morning so we didn't have time to go to the hotel to freshen up before beginning a busy day. We hopped on this bus and headed to the Pearl Factory for lunch.
Isn't this dining room beautiful?

After we ate, we were able to see a large oyster shell that held these beautiful pearls.

Anyone want to wear a pearl around their neck?

Then we headed over to the Emporer's Summer Palace.

Our tour guide carried a green flag for us to follow. If we were ever lost, we would look for this green flag.

It was incredible to learn about the Chinese history and the people. (as you look at the pictures remember- we've been traveling for two days)

We were caught off guard that people were surrounding our group with their cameras and video cameras to take pictures of us. Our tour guide told us that some of them lived in the country and had never seen people that look like us. The little kids were like celebrities!


This lady wanted her picture taken with Laura. I love this picture!

The chinese architecture and ornate details were just amazing.




We got to ride across the river on one of the boats that look like a dragon.


What are the chances to find a big screen playing a basketball game at the Emporer's Summer Palace? Leave it to the Copeland boys...

As we left the Palace, we were swarmed by street vendors wanting to sale us watches.