We're Here!

Uneventful, relatively smooth, lo-o-o-o-ng flight. I tried to stay awake during the flight so that I could sleep well during our first night in Beijing. The Chinese passengers all around us seemed to sense this and did what they could to help out. The fidgety old woman on my right kept pummeling me and stomping on my foot as she fiddled with her carry-on, adjusted her blanket, did her exercises, etc. The guy behind me did what he could by periodically poking me in the back and elbow and kicking me in the ass. We arrived on time at 6PM (3AM our time), wide awake and ready to connect with our national guide and transport to our hotel, the Jiangxi Grand.

Beijing airport, completed just one month ago, is nothing short of awesome.The architecture, colors, materials, layout, everything - come together to produce a spacious, appealing, efficient terminal capable of handling a massive number of people. This massive terminal, incredibly, was built by 50,000 workers in just 4 years, from planning to completion.

Our national guide, Buddy (this is his English name. Chinese name is Sun + something difficult to pronounce), gave us a running commentary as we traveled to the hotel. He pointed out that while Beijing and Shanghai are very modern and progressive, with bright lights, modern skyscrapers, multi-lane freeways and expressways, rural China is quite different. He likened China to an aging woman who, preparing to go out, carefully applies her makeup, perhaps a little to heavily, and chooses her outfit carefully in an effort to appear alluring while hiding her less appealing aspects.