I’m preparing to put away the laptop as we pack up for the final leg of our journey.

We meet Amy in the lobby at 6:45 am for the 1-hour van ride to Beijing Capital International Airport. Our China Southern flight is at 9:15 am and the destination is Guangzhou in southern China. The flight is 3 hours long as the crow flies at 600 mph.

It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to Amy. She was absolutely wonderful and a better guide than we could possibly have imagined.

See you down South!

Today was another busy day that started with a visit to the Beijing Zoo. We didn’t visit the zoo in 2002.

This was the normal scene in our van as Eliana talked Amy’s ears off for the entire 30-minute trip.

How about a 3-point road turn in the middle of a busy street by a bus?

The main attraction is, of course, the pandas.

Funny sign at the panda compound.

Come here, mom!

We passed an ice cream stand and just had to stop. Carmi started out giving Karys just a taste of her ice cream and the Littlest Empress decided she wanted the whole thing.

This is what happens when the ice cream runs out.

There were Red Pandas.

I’ll be darned if Godzilla wasn’t there too. I guess he swam over from Japan.

6-1/2 hours later and we finally were checked into our hotel room in Beijing. As a matter of fact, we’re in the same room from last weekend.

All five of us are so tired we can’t see straight.

As soon as we settled into the room, Carmi gave the two girls a bath and I put them straight to bed. I’ll bet it didn’t take two minutes before they were both sound asleep. Carmi and I have had our showers and I’ll bet it won’t take us two minutes either.

We have an early start tomorrow and a full day starting with the Great Wall!

G’night.

Karys had a slight fever this morning so we gave her some medicine and she fell asleep again after breakfast.

Even though I’m sure she’s not feeling well today, we’ve had an abundance of smiles and laughs since lunch and a major poop job. Guess that would make most anyone feel better.

We leave for the train station in 30 minutes for a return trip to Beijing. I wonder if Karys is as happy to be leaving Shijiazhuang as we are?

The girls watch Mulan after breakfast while we wait to meet Amy at 11:00.