China!

We are all excited to be returning to St. Louis this summer.  We wanted to take one last family vacation during the kids' Spring Break before moving home.  We decided to go to Beijing to visit the Great Wall and to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors.  I knew the trip would be much more educational (and less fun) than many of our other trips, but I just didn't want to leave Hong Kong without seeing those things.  We were also concerned about the pollution, especially in Beijing.  We made sure we had pollution masks available and decided it was worth the risk.  This trip was also different for us because it was the first time we used a tour company.  I didn't want to go on a big group tour with strangers, but in my research, I found several companies that provided a driver and tour guide for just your family or group.  The one I chose was targeted to families.  I wanted to work with guides that were used to children and their limitations and were used to recommending kid-friendly activities.  We were able to take their list of recommended activities and add and delete things to fit our preferences (we made sure to add a Chinese Acrobat show and a visit to the Water Cube and Bird's Nest used in the Olympics).  I was really happy we chose to use a tour company.  We were able to see so many things and got so much more out of having someone explain everything we were seeing and able to tell us the history and cultural significance than if we had just walked around these places on our own.
The day we flew into Beijing, the pollution level was hazardous, the whole sky looked foggy, you could barely see the skyline.  I was really concerned how the rest of our trip was going to be.  Luckily, when we woke up the next morning, it was quite windy, which seemed to blow the pollution away.  Also, we were there over a holiday weekend (Monday was Tomb Sweeping Day), so factories were most likely running on a reduced schedule.  We ended up with several very clear days, especially the day we visited the Great Wall.  We were very lucky.