Itinerary Final Draft

We finally received the final itinerary from our agency. I think they were waiting to see if any other families received TA and CA in line with ours before they could bill us. Ultimately, I just wanted the flight date and times for our in China flights. It appears that we will be our own travel group for the entire trip. A family who just received TA to their little girl from Ian's orphanage were sadly unable to obtain a Consulate Appointment in time to travel in early November.

Nevertheless, we are so excited to have extra time in Hangzhou. We had a choice to fly from Beijing to Hangzhou on the 3rd, 4th, or 5th, but we feel like we will have seen as much of Beijing as we'll need by then and it will be a good 10 to 20 degrees warmer in Hangzhou...Any extra time we have would much better be spent in our son's province taking in as much as we can of his region.

It looks like Ian doesn't come up from Hangzhou until the 6th. This means we'll have 2 full days to sightsee before he comes, although we would much rather have him with us. We are considering going up to Shanghai for a day, but I'm getting conflicting reports as to whether it's worth it or not. Some say definitely, while others say we don't have enough time to truly enjoy it. There is so much to see and do in Hangzhou, so we can easily spend the time there or go into the countryside a bit to a tea plantation or other regional locale.

Based on the final itinerary, this will be our timeline:

10/29: Leave Seattle
10/30: Arrive Beijing (Late)
11/3: Depart Beijing/Arrive Hangzhou, Zhejiang
11/6: Ian Comes to Hangzhou! Finally a Family!
11/11: Depart Hangzhou/Arrive Guangzhou (Happy 20th B-Day Ashlee!!)
11/13: Consulate Appointment...It's Official!
11/16: Depart Guangzhou! Ian becomes an American Citizen