Long day today. We left Atlanta on Monday morning and arrived in Beijing on Tuesday afternoon after 20 plus hours in airports and airplanes. We even flew over the North Pole! We had an extra seat beside us on the planes which made it a little easier to stretch out, however, neither one of us slept very much.
We did, however, meet some nice Chinese folks on the plane ride to Beijing. Being six feet tall made Roy a very popular guy with the overhead bins. Roy would be sitting in his seat with his earphones on absorbed in the flight movie and three or four times little Chinese ladies would come up and tap him on the shoulder, pointing and asking him to search the bins for whatever they needed. He, of course, immediately stood up and started moving luggage around in the overhead bins for them, being his most charming southern self. They were very appreciative. At one point, one Chinese woman on the flight who was sitting on another row, hollered across the back of the seat to offer Roy her dessert that she wasn’t planning on eating. One nice lady that befriended Roy and who sat across the aisle was married to a professor here in Beijing; every time she saw Roy watching something interesting on his screen (in the seatback in front of him) she insisted that he tune it in for her as well. I must say Roy’s been a big hit.
The highlight of our day was seeing Lina, our guide, smiling and displaying our agency sign as we exited customs. It had begun to dawn on us that we really weren’t in Kansas anymore, and we would have had quite the adventure trying to make it to the Beijing Radisson without Lina’s help. Lina had the driver load our luggage and accompanied us to the hotel, sharing advice and tips. She checked us in and made sure our immediate needs were met.
We haven’t really seen much of Beijing thus far. There’s no shortage of KFCs, McDonald and Pizza Hut. In a city of 13 million, as you can imagine, there’s a lot of traffic. Lina said 1 million people commute to the city every day. There are so many bicyclist. You see the young and the old biking down the street. The air is pretty heavy here; there’s a lot of pollution. Tomorrow we plan to venture out and explore a little bit. On Thursday, we are going to do a group tour of the Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, etc. So more of Beijing to come.
Tonight, we had dinner at the restaurant here at the Raddison. Roy ate turtle! It was actually pretty bland. The restaurant also had these huge jars of snakes steeped in wine. It apparently has medicinal properties. I passed on that. Anyway, we’re both very exhausted so we’re going to retire early. Five days from now we will be in Nanchang where we will meet our daughter for the first time. Beijing promises to be an interesting place in the meantime.
Thanks, Debbie
Debbie in Newark about to board the plane for China
