Beijing

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We arrived in Beijing Early Tuesday morning after a 12-hour train trip from Xi'an. I step off the train and finally no heat or humidity. It's a beautiful sunny dry 70 degree day. Unfortunately, the "la dui zi' has struck my brother's fiancee. She's actually pretty sick so some of our original plans are modified. We basically decide to Live-it-up and check ourselves into a junior suite and the US Park Plaza hotel.

This place is awesome! Our deal included buffet breakfast, two free other meals, A daily happy hour at the executive lounge, and a sweet room with a soaking tub and a huge living room space. You definitely can tell the difference between a foreign hotel and a Chinese run hotel of the same class. On the surface, everything looks the same, but the details like the look of the rugs in the room or the quality of the food in the restaurants just isn't quite there yet.

It sounds kind of boring just hanging out in a hotel, but after several days of hot and humid weather, train travel, and missed flights it definitely felt great to soak in the tub and just relax.

Even though we didn't get to go to the great wall, we did manage to find time to visit the Olympic Park. With the two main attractions being the bird's nest and the aqua cube. It's amazing how popular these venues still are. taking the train up, you would think there was an event going on that day. The architecture really is unique and it's understandable why the Chinese are still proud to have hosted the games with these two venues as the centerpiece.

Another part of Beijing we were able to explore were the old neighborhoods that are folded into all of the modern construction. These neighborhoods are called "Hutongs". Walking through the hutong gives you a flavor of the way Beijing used to be before all of the modern development and advances. This is definitely something that should be experienced if you come to Beijing.

Heading back to Shanghai for one more day and then back to the states.

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