Beijing 2 AM

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Day One of my trip was a huge success.

Splurging on a Business/First upgrade on United Flight 89 was a great investment -- terrific lounge access at JFK before the flight, the most comfortable seat/bed I've ever experienced, terrific in flight food and a great entertainment center made the nearly 14-hour flight very easy to endure. In fact I arrived in Beijing at 1:45 pm local time feeling quite rested in spite of the 12-hour time difference (12 hours ahead of NY time)

After freshening up at the JW Marriott Beijing , Chris and I quickly walked through the nearby luxury mall -- beautiful stores with lots of staff and not too many customers for a Saturday afternoon. Apparently such enterprises make their money on occasional HUGE sales to very wealthy customers, not a steady flow of one-piece purchases. Anyway sorry to report that the women in my life should not expect any Chanel bags, Hermes scarves or Tory Burch goodies from me on this trip.

Then we took the very clean subway six stops to Tiananmen Square. (Truth be told, we first went one stop in the wrong direction and then seven stops to TS. Still getting our bearings even with all of the amazing directional apps Chris has plugged into his iPhone.) In this big city in this country of a billion people, I was struck by how much room we had on the subway. That was a fleeting experience -- on the trip back we were stuffed like sardines. By at 2 yuan per ride (about 35 cents, I'm not complaining about the value!)

We spent a couple of hours strolling through the Forbidden City -- marveling at the buildings, the dragon gargoyles, the cypress trees and flowering cherries and the many bridal couples having their pictures taken in the beautiful setting. We were extremely popular (in fact it got annoying) with guys and gals pitching private car service and tours of The Great Wall. No worries that those Chinese are slow in adopting capitalism.

After the Forbidden City, we crossed under a major boulevard to stroll through Tiananmen Square. Unfortunately it was too late to visit the MAOsoleum to visit the chairman or enter other buildings. But it was a perfect spring afternoon and a great way to stretch our legs after the long flight. By the time we got back to the hotel, I was bushed.

I worked hard to stay up until 10 pm and then crashed into bed. Unfortunately, my body is still on east coast time. Damn you circadian rhythm. And that is why I'm writing this at 2 am. Now to try to force myself back to sleep so I'll be all peppy for our trip to the Great Wall with whatever guide Chris arranged.

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