Arrived in Beijing, safely!

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The reality of going to China and leaving the Western world behind, set in when I arrived in Beijing, twelve hours after I left Seattle, where I had a delicious send-off with Aunt Sally. Arguably the largest airport I have ever seen with passenger terminals on both sides of the runway, the terminal seemed like a ghost-town, to the point where I thought they might not have customs. But after clearing customs and grabbing luggage, my new buddy Darren Chen (who attends Univ. of Maryland but a Chinese native home for New Years) helped me locate the bus that would take me close to the Ba Wang Feng Bus Station, which I thought was the 'Grand Central Station' of Beijing. It was nice to see a Pizza Hut and KFC at the airport. There I was with barely one-cheek on the seat, one of my bags in the front of the bus, and the other laying down in the back of the bus in the aisle. Again, I was fortunate enough to meeting an English speaking Chinese girl on the bus who helped me get off at the right spot, which happened to be on the side of a busy highway in the middle of Beijing. So to compound the situation, I begin taking photos of the shining city skyline and lights, with temperatures in the teens. With Darren having written down on a piece of paper in Chinese that I needed to find a hotel near the bus station, I jump in a single person taxi the size of a golf-cart and show the driver the piece of paper. My life flashed in front of me a couple times during that ride, in which we almost had one serious head-on. 20 minutes later, the driver pulls down this alley which looks sketchy, but somehow we arrive at a Motel-6 looking hotel. I am soo relieved at this point, and don't care what the taxi driver and hotel charge, nor what the room looks like. I made it safely to a hotel near the bus stop where I would leave from the next morning at 7 am.
I went out and had dinner that night in the dark alley we pulled into with the cabbie. You haven't seen a 'hole in the wall' restaurant/bar until you saw the place I went to for my first Chinese meal, with smoke billowing out the single entrance/exit door, and the sound of glass bottles (of beer) ringing like it was a recycling plant. I sat down observing everything happening in this little place like the happiest Sociologist this side of the International date line. Quickl was asked to order and without even knowing the answer I said, Kung Pao Chicken? Soon after ordering, some guys invited me over to their table for beers and smokes. Pretty soon, we had a good game of Charades with a bit of sign language as our form of communication. Those guys smoked like chimneys and drank like fish. Shots of beer in Japanese restaurant -like glasses was the game. 'Gam-bay', is what they say. The beer was so watered down, 2.5%, it was hydrating. Somehow, my Kung Pao Chicken arrived to the table and I was in business! Eventually, one of the guys pulled the classic bar move, left without saying anything, and the last guy began showing me pictures of his son he was so proud. He picked up my dinner, which was a very nice gesture, and I was set for a good night's sleep!

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