Arrival

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As the 14 hour flight continued, we were given another meal an hour before arriving and then our plane had to hold a short time for traffic. There was fog mixed in with the pollution and so it was real bad this day. It looked like a forest fire was burning. We cleared customs and immigration within an hour and then caught the express train into the city. It was about a 30 minute ride and then it was a few metro stops to our hotel, which was the Novotel Xin Qiao.

After checking in, and then showering and changing clothes, we went out to eat. We ended up eating at the Beijing Hotel and having some local dishes. It was very good. After the dinner, we went to Tiananmen Square and walked around.

There were a lot of people out and so we just hung out there for a little bit until well after 9pm. We then took the metro back to the hotel since we were so tired and did not want to walk back the 20 minutes or so.

We went to sleep right away so we could arise early the next day to visit the Great Wall.

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