Day 14: Back to Beijing!

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“Oh crap!” This is what I woke up to Liang screaming at 4:30am. This morning was supposed to begin at 3:30am so we had time to get ready before our 5am departure. Not so lucky. Bleary-eyed from a not-so-great night of “sleep” (the congestion I am suffering from is legendary) we loaded up the caravan for the trek to Beijing.We stopped at a grocery store yesterday to stock up on food since we would not have time to stop on the way- I think we over-stocked.

The first few hours we mostly slept. Well, everyone else slept (except the driver, of course). I suffered in agony wondering how I was going to fare with this congestion tomorrow on a 13-hour flight. I decided to hop out during our first pit-stop and the cold air helped clear my sinuses- relief! I dozed on and off for awhile after that until we all awoke and decided to make our way through the abundance of food we had bought the day before- donuts, oranges, apples, pears, cakes, pretzels, and concord-like grape juice with fruit pieces in it (we should really have this in the US).

Driving along we saw many an interesting sight. Several trucks bringing livestock to market, including about a dozen cows in an open-top large pickup bed packed tightly together and a truck carrying lambs stacked four rows high (live!), and a field of garbage where a herd of goats was feeding. I wish I could have snapped photos but they came up so quickly it was impossible. As I’ve said, the drives are always interesting.

We were making good time, but as we approached Beijing we were instructed to pull over and wait. Beijing was too busy and they were not letting in cars that were not local. We pulled into a parking lot to wait and watched as another driver pulled off his foreign plates and replaced them with ones from Beijing. Sneaky, but he was on his way. A short while later we were back on the road to the airport. We anticipated arriving in Beijing around 3-4pm but made it here by noon. Unheard of in China! And a tribute to our awesome driver.

I was happy to arrive at our hotel early so I actually had a short time to relax. We took a short walk around our hotel past the US Embassy and then tried to hail a cab for dinner. We definitely need more practice trying to get a cab. Boy did that make me miss having our drivers! You basically have to jump out in front of them to get them to stop. Cab drivers in Beijing tend to be very helpful. We were meeting and old lab mate of mine and his wife for dinner and had printed the restaurant name out but didn't know where it was. The driver knew the basic area and headed over. He then told Liang to call the restaurant for better directions but Liang told him he was a visitor and did not have a cell. The driver used his cell to contact the restaurant for directions and did so gladly. An impressive attitude for such a large and busy city.

We had another “HotPot” meal tonight, but this was Hong Kong style made with congee (like a rice soup) instead of a regular broth. Very tasty! It was wonderful to see a familiar face and to catch up on things back home and with their new life in Beijing. What a small world where you can come half way across the globe and find there is someone you know in the exact city in which you are. A perfect ending to take us home and back to reality tomorrow.

This will be the last of my posts from China, but I will be posting a few followup stories to tie everything together and give some overall impressions- so don’t miss them! They will be up within a week so I don’t start forgetting everything I would still like to share.

Thanks for reading!

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Photos

Dinner with Friends
It really is a small world.