Day 2 - Beijing

End of Day 1:   Arrival in Beijing

First Leg of our Around the World Odyssey

June 9, 2014 - After one two hour layover in Vancouver, 5300 miles up to Alaska crossing over the Bering Sea and skirting down west of North Korea, two hot meals and a hot noodle snack, three movies, and sunshine all the way at 36,000 feet, we landed in Beijing on June 10 at 2;30 pm, approximately 11:30 pm PDST on June 9.   We passed through immigration, collected our bags (all arrived fine..such a relief), wove our way through throngs of ad hoc car-to-hotel services to the official taxi stand outside of the airport where we caught a cab with a meter and took a wild ride with cabbie another 40 minutes to our hotel, The Dongfang.  The meter cost us 140 Yuan RMBs (appoximately $28.00).  The ad hoc, no-meter-car services were charging 300-800 Yaun for the same service, quite a savings...and there were no long lines and waiting.

We checked in and were in our 11th story room by 5:30 where we rearranged our packs to that which actually accommodates day-to-day traveling rather than air flight restrictions, ate a light dinner in the hotel coffee shop, took showers and collapsed in our beds by 8:30.  It had been a 25 hour day!

Day  2

June 11, 2014 - Yep we lost a day as we traveled west over the international dateline.  This morning we woke around 5:30.  By the time we got ourselves together (wakeup showers, hot tea,  and BBC  TV news in English),  we went down to the hotel dining room for a very nice Eastern and Western breakfast buffet at 7:30.  We  spent  the rest of morning  and early part of the afternoon walking around the city, taking in the sights, sounds,  smell, and feel of the city.   The city is smoggy, but not as bad as we anticipated.  Our face masks are still packed away as we can see blue sky.

Ti'an ammen Square and Forbidden City (Palace Museum) were  bustling with  tourists,  most  of them from other  parts  of the country.  We got a kick out of being photographed by the Chinese tourists along with the other attractions.  One young  woman with a camera  ran ahead of us, her friend  joined us as if  she were walking with us.   When we realized what they were doing, we just stopped and posed with her.  Then we posed again when the girls exchanged places.  They were absolutely giddy with excitement and giggles.  Other tourists were a little less obvious.  As I  would be photographing a building, I could see others taking photos of us.  It was really funny.

We met a nice young woman, Annie, at the Forbidden City who was a licensed tour guide and calligrapher.  She spoke excellent English and was a teacher of English and calligraphy.  she took us into the university student art exhibit and explained the pictographs on the art work.  We wound up purchasing some student work and may return to Annie on Friday for a personal tour of the Forbidden city.

The city, especially around the government buildings, is under heavy security.  Soldiers, neatly dressed, looking like they were only 18 stood smartly in strategic locations watching the crowds for any signs of trouble.   Ti'an ammen square, Mao's Mausoleum, Forbidden city are cordoned off with railings.  Tourists must cross under the streets in subways and funnel through security.

Ladies and their parasols

We enjoyed meandering through allies and shops.  Of course we saw lots of stuff "made in China".  While in one of the shops, we heard some very loud crickets.  We followed the sound to find half a dozen of them, each in an individual spherical cage.  These were big crickets about 2 inches long.  We weren't sure whether these little Jimineys were being sold as good luck, bait, or a snack.  Poor little guys!  

We are now back at the hotel, resting up.  It is quite warm, and I think we will turn in again early tonight, after we transmit this post. Wifi is not as readily available as we thought it would be, and  when we do find it, it is incredibly slow and times out before anything loads.  It is frustrating an perhaps  intentional to restrict access.  Tomorrow, we are off by bullet train to Quinhuangdao Shanhaiguan for 2.5 hours to see where the Great Wall runs into the sea.

That's it for today.  All is well with Worrall Travel R's