Friday and Saturday December 3 and 4……Day 1 and 2.....

          We left Ft. Lauderdale at 0631 am Friday morning on American Airlines on route to Dallas/Ft. Worth.  Tony and I were able to manage first class on stand-by but were not able to acquire seats together.  That was fine; I figured it would give someone else the pleasure of Tony's snoring since I had just had four hours of it myself!  The man I sat next to was pleasant enough, until he asked why I was traveling.  When I told him 'for an adoption', he never missed a beat and said "your kind of old to be adopting aren’t you?”  Ok so it was 630 in the morning, and I maybe had 3 hours of sleep, and sure the horrific black bags dangling from under my eyes may have been masking my natural youthful zest, but come on......a little sensitivity was in order I think.  But all is well, I let him live and he even manage to arrive in DFW with no permanent scarring or emotional distress!!

            We arrived in DFW right on time and began the long haul to the other side of the airport for our flight to Tokyo.  The moment we stepped to the gate the agent told us they had a weight restriction and we probably would not get on the flight.  Most people, and by most I mean everyone, thinks we’re insane for trying to fly standby.  And yes I have to agree, but it’s all just part of the adventure.  The flight was way under weight and we able to get on at the last minute. We even managed to get first class.  Let me tell you, if you have to travel any distance over 5 hours or so, definitely go on a 777 and do whatever you can to get first class,  badger, beg and whine, just get your butt in a seat.  Wow, great service and huge seats that lay all the way back like a bed.  Even with such great accommodations, I never managed to sleep; Tony did get about an hour or two.

          We landed in Tokyo and taxied for about 15 minutes to reach the gate.  There was a 3 hour layover until our NW flight left for Beijing. We got on the plane about 30 minutes prior to departure and not only did my body shut down, it completely turned off.  I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until we were about an hour away from Beijing.  Even awake I was non functional, poor Tony had to fill out my quarantine health form and the entry form.  He kept trying to ask me questions but all I could do at that point was blink and drool.  Luckily for me, Tony is quite fluent in Blinking and Drooling!

          We arrived in Beijing right on schedule and we herded out with the rest of the passengers.  Tony and I weren’t moseying by any means but you would have thought we were standing still next to some of these people.  They were literally running down the hall way.  There are two signs to follow: domestic transfer and baggage claim.  We followed the baggage claim sign and rounded the corner to see two long lines, one for domestic transfer and one for baggage claim.  We waited until we got to the front of the line to give a clerk our quarantine health form and then moved on into a huge room full of booths like check out lines.  This was immigration.  We showed him our passport and the entry form, he put a stamp in our passport and then we were free to enter Beijing.  By this time our baggage was already going around the baggage carousel.  We went out the large doors where there was a long line of people with signs. I could barely tell you my name; there was no way I could read anyone’s sign and recognize anything.  Luckily I spotted a beautiful young woman with a green flag that read GWCA.  I believe I had a religious experience at that very moment.  I could have wept at just the thought of a bed and a shower.  It was now about 2130 Saturday night local Beijing time, which would be 0830 Saturday morning at home.  What a long horrific day and soon to be over. 

Sunday December 5, 2004….Day 3….

          We slept until 0800 and went to breakfast.  It was a western style buffet but not a lot on it that we could eat, it basically centered around meat.  After breakfast we emailed family and then headed down to the pool and spa.  It was a lazy relaxing day, and I think I wore my spongebob pajamas most of the day, until dinner.  It just doesn’t get any better than that. 

A few words about the hotel.  We stayed at the Sino-Swiss Beijing Airport. It’s about 15 minutes from the airport.  It’s nice, clean and the people are very friendly and helpful.  You can get Internet hookup for an hour for 20 CNY (2.41 US) or for an entire day, 24 hours for 60 (7.24 US).  They provide a LAN cable that you just hook up, you’ll put in a login in code and a password and you’re ready to go.  We got it for just one day, to email people at home to let them know we were safe and then we got hookup again once we reached the next province.  If you don’t bring your laptop then they do have a business center where you can send emails for about 2.50 US apiece, which I thought was a little expensive depending on how many people you had to contact. 

The rooms are nice and clean, and they provide a pot to heat water, also small complementary packets of tea and coffee and all the items you might need for the bathroom.  We didn’t bring shampoo but ended up buying some because what was provided was just in a dispenser on the wall.  Same with the shower soap, which made me itch. Oh, by the way, you really don’t need to bring toothpaste or brushes with you; you can get Colgate products and others everywhere.  What you cannot get is Listerine; apparently Listerine is not a popular item in Beijing.  I found a small bottle next to the Friendship Store, it looked old and it was about 5 dollars US.  One last thing about the hotel, they provide you with two small bottles of water a day about 350 ml.  You can purchase additional water in the lobby store, about twice the size for 2.50 US.  Don’t buy it there; go out of the hotel across the street to a grocery/department store.  You can get 1.5 L Nestle Mineral Water for around .78 US.  We went over there and bought two waters, three packages of soup, a really large orange juice and three small juice boxes plus some trail mix all for about 5.00 US.   

Monday December 6, 2004……Day 4…

          We caught the hotel shuttle into downtown Beijing.  There was a bit of miscommunication between what I wanted and what our guide told us, we thought we were going near the Temple of Heaven, which we were no where near.  We went by the Silk Market, which is just one big flea market.  They basically had about the same 10 products, but many different booths.  Stuff like cd’s, DVD’s, shoes, Rolex watches, and other knock-off designer stuff.  Then down the street is the Friendship store which is a 4 story department store full of all kinds of goodies: any kind of Chinese souvenirs, pearls, jade, ivory, paintings, clothing, perfume, tapestry, embroidery, books, furniture, tea sets, tea, and many, many other things.

Tuesday, December 7, 2004…..Day 5….

          We went to the Great Wall of China today.  There just isn’t a lot to say about it, the photos just say it all.  It’s enormous, amazing, beautiful, and just such a wonder to see.  We climbed to the third tower and had an incredible view.

We then went to the Forbidden City, which seem to go on forever.  We had heard the horror stories about beggars and street vendors that are extremely aggressive but we really didn’t have much trouble.  A few here and there but nothing unmanageable. 

When you come out of the Forbidden City on the other side, you can see Tiananmen Square.  We were told you could fit one million people side by side inside the square, Chinese people of course.  There weren’t very many people in the square that day, maybe 1000 or so.  Many were there to watch the ‘Lowering of the Flag’ ceremony.  There were a few street vendors and beggars and also a lot of people flying these huge kites which I assume they were also selling.  On the way across the square I heard someone holler ‘watch out, the kite is really low’.  Then WHACK….right in the face with a four foot wing span bamboo eagle kite!  I didn’t even know what hit me until I got wrapped around the string.  It had hit about an inch below my left eye and then just dung in and carved a nice little pathway down my cheek.  The man who was flying the kite came over to see if I was ok, he was a little distressed when he saw all the blood, but I tried to smile at him to let him know I was ok.  As we were heading out of the square he chased us down and gave me a small version of the eagle kite that hit me.  I thought that was very kind.  My face would heal up within about four days, but little did I know I’d be sporting a black eye for the entire trip. I have to say though, that after you got past the pain and the blood it was just hilarious.  We all got a good laugh over that for weeks.  As a side note, when the beggars and vendors came up to me to get money, they were quickly deterred by all the blood.  Not that you have to open a vein if they get near you, but if it gets bad, now you know you have an option!