Stop #1 will be in Beijing--the capital city. We will spend a few days there getting past the worst of the jet lag (hopefully). (By the way, any getting-over-jet-lag tips you might know would be greatly appreciated, just hit the "comments" button below.) We will get to do a couple of touristy things like see the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. There we will also have orientation (no pun intended) with our travel group.
City #2 is Changsha in Hunan Province. The first thing on the agenda there is getting our daughter! Woo hoo! (or perhaps I should say, "Waaaaaa . . .whew!" We expect rather a lot of crying.) Right now our daughter is in the city of Yuanling in Hunan Province, but she will be brought to us in Changsha. Yuanling is 370 kilometers northwest of Changsha. We will spend about 4 or 5 days there, getting to know each other, then we all fly down to . . .
City #3--Guangzhou This is the site of the US Consulate, and therefore the place to finalize Althea's visa and immigration paperwork. We will be there about a week. Finally, we'll be ready to head for home. So after a quick flight hopping over to
City #4--Hong Kong we will head back for the good 'ole U S of A!
And for those of you curious about the relative travel distances, here's an interesting map of the US superimposed over China:
When you look at relative latitudes, it's sort of like flying into Pittsburg, then down to the Florida panhandle, then way down to the Florida keys. Hot and sticky in late June, but well worth it!
We are following all this with great excitement! In response to your question about jet lag, I highly recommend the book *The Promise of Sleep* by William Dement. It covers everything, including jet lag tips. Since you are embarking on a whole new era of your life in the sleep department, it's a good time to read up on sleep in general. Fascinating science. Plus it's a nice, thick book and will keep you busy on the plane.
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