Ready....

This trip has been eight years in the making. The evening that Beijing won the 2008 Olympic bid, Ian and I swore that we would return to China in 2008 for the Games. Eight years on, two children, and a mortgage or two later, those plans have been changed a bit. Not wanting to spend $15,000 for a ten day trip to stifling Beijing in mid-August, we decided instead to visit Beijing just before her big coming out party. We hear that the final polish is being put on many of the venues, the Forbidden City (sans Starbucks...YEAH!) is gleaming, and yes, the pollution is as bad as ever.

We want to see it all with our own eyes, reconnect with friends that we have made over our 10 years of travel to China, and travel deep into the provinces where our daughters were born, Anhui and Jiangxi. China changes fast! We want to see the China that they were born into. We want to be witness to the changes taking place. We want it to feel familiar to us as a family. We want to be connected to the place.....

....what other reasons could one give for taking off on a 16 day, four province ramble (by train), through central China?

The only person who thinks we are mad is a Chinese friend in Harbin. If others question our sanity, they aren't telling us.