30 December 2015: Beijing touch-down

Saying goodbye to friends in Brussels was hard.
13 amazing years of friendships, fun and happiness. And then of course saying goodbye to the family in Italy and Denmark. Goodbye for 4 1/2 years. Arrivederci - we're off to the other side of the world. For 4 years.
The container made it to the port of Antwerp from where it would start its voyage to Beijing...and we made it to the airport. We could finally relax once we had checked in our 15 suitcases, paid for excess baggage baggage and, most importantly, finished the paperwork for our cat Pumba who was coming with us.
We arrived in Beijing at 5 am. As we got off the plane we could feel it and smell it immediately. The air quality was bad. Really bad that day. Welcome.
(We've been very lucky since then and I'll write about the air quality issue soon!)

We were reunited with Pumba at the airport. She was shaken and very thirsty but otherwise ok.
After 1 hour in a small, humid office, signing another million papers for her, she got the green light by a vet provided that she'd be in quarantine for one month at our hotel apartment.
The Oakwood Residence (our home for the first couple of months) turned out to be wonderful and we felt welcome from the very first day.
With some of the stress, tiredness and emotions over, we finally had time to look at each other and say "What the h*ll are we doing here?" :-)

Zaventem airport, Brussels

Beijing newcomers always exaggerate :-)

Our own private bus to the Hotel

Oakwood Residence

Very first walk - in the sunshine