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Blogs from Beijing, China, Asia
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May 19th 2013
31 hour train.... last of the transiberia/trans mongolia route! A change of scenery from birch trees-desert and now to chinese mountain land. Mongolia- china border crossing took 9 hours- the customs questioned me as on my passport photo i have a slight spt on my cheek that i dont have now.. after much staring at my face they concluded it is me! As well as the nine hour wait... all the toilets were out of use and we were'nt allowed out of the carriage... we were getting so desperate we had an empty juice bottle ready but luckily it didnt come to it. We decided to get through the russia and mongolia by using up our spare mongolian currencuy on a bottle of what we thought was screw top wine... of course it wasnt and was ... read more
April 30th 2013
This has been one of the fastest, craziest weeks that I have had to date! My mom arrived last week on Tuesday. Sara and I were able to fetch her without too many issues, though we did arrive at the meeting place after my mom had already gone through customs, etc. Sadly, this meant that I did not have the opportunity to jump, shout and enthusiastically wave my pre-decorated Disney balloon and watch Sara turn an ungodly shade of red as promised. Huge bummer. But, a trip in to and back out of Hangzhou without a hitch is cause for celebration enough. Mom has managed to proceed with her visit to China with ZERO jet-lag. I am not sure what voodoo she pulled off in order to make this happen, but she has been an absolute ... read more
April 23rd 2013
12 April 2013 We landed at Beijing airport at 01h-something after one of the worst flights and slowest landings of our trip. The heating was on too high for the entire flight, and the windy descent into Beijing took what felt like a bumpy, stomach turning hour. Horrible. Next challenge, the taxi queue and all its inherent scams; and the total absence of any spoken English. After much getting in and out of our chosen taxi, the driver eventually got the message and turned on the meter. We are no initiates to this game! And, things didn't get better fast. Chinese driving, to say the least, is quite special. As is the absolute and open disregard for western passengers shown by the majority of taxi drivers. In fact, as we discovered, they will often just not ... read more
April 17th 2013
Well here we are again but this time in China! I really did not want to leave Japan as I enjoyed it so much over there however I was ready for my next challenge. And it was a big one... After getting up at 6am to make my 7am train to the airport I was pretty tired, sleep deprived from the snorers in my room! I was taking 2 flights, Tokyo to Shanghai and then Shanghai to Beijing, simple right?? Oh noooooo! I landed in Shanghai to be ushered off the plane, frogmarched through immigration and the straight to the next boarding gate, I thought there would be time for food seeing as I did not get fed on the plane as there were no vegetarian options, great start. So there is a very hangry Boom ... read more
Pot-pourri (mais pas du tout pourri)
Published: April 16th 2013Asia » China » Beijing » Daxing » qingyundian
April 16th 2013
finalement une bonne nuit de sommeil. Nos batteries sont rechargées et on repart des plus belles. Comme j'avais un peu de temps j'en ai profité pour faire un petit pot-pourri de photos close-up de vos enfants. Je m'excuse si je ne les ai pas tous, si vous en vouez de votre enfant, faites moi signe et j'avais remédier à la situation. André... read more
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April 14th 2013
I've flown hundreds of times over the years, but the miracle of high-speed, long-distance jet travel never ceases to amaze me. So much so that whenever we travel overseas, Andi teases me because I inevitably say something like: "Can you believe that just yesterday we were walking the dog back in Rye and now we're in (FILL IN THE BLANK AMAZING LOCATION.)" Well, Andi wouldn't have been surprised to hear me repeating that refrain this morning when I found myself climbing the steep steps of the Great Wall of China surrounded by thousands of Chinese tourists. We "did" the wall at Badalang, the most visited and most touristy of the Great Wall sites, because we wanted to see it as the average Chinese person would. Apropos of that, our adventure began by taking the subway at ... read more
April 14th 2013
After a cross taxi driver took us to our hotel from the train station early in the morning - it becomes a theme for our stay here - a one way street is not their favourite place to be in busy Beijing - we settled in with our usual post sleeper train showers and then set off for a walking tour of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Fortunately this time we had all slept well on the train so were feeling a lot more perky. As soon as we set foot outside the hotel we realised the Tiananmen Square trip would be somewhat curtailed as right outside our hotel was passing the Beijing marathon and loads of runners whizzing by in a flurry of flags and numbers and costumes. All very exciting and we cheered ... read more
April 13th 2013
Petit message pour saluer les élèves de la classe de 6e année de Sophie (femme de Eric ) de l'école Émilie Gamelin qui suivent notre voyage par le blog dans le cadre d'un projet sur la Chine. Encore une fois excusez mes erreurs de frappe, à l'heure que j'écris et avec le correcteur, je me rends compte que parfois il se glisse des erreurs dans le texte. Lisez le contenu et ne vous arrêtez pas aux lettres. Aujourd'hui course de vélos sur les remparts de Xi'an et visite d'une fabrique de jade. Ensuite je crois qu'on a un souper théâtre.......on verra une chose à la fois!!!! Ni Hao... read more
April 13th 2013
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 ... read more
April 12th 2013
Bon matin ou bonne soirée chers membres de notre blog. Petit message d'excuse pour le dernier blog. Je crois que j'étais un peu brûlé car en me relisant ce matin, j'ai découvert plusieurs erreurs d'écriture. Nous avons bien mangé du canard laqué hier soir et non pas du carnage Laqué!!!! Je me coucherai plus de bonne heure ce soir..... Juste un petit message concernant vos enfants. Ils mangent bien, dorment bien, de vrais amours. Le soir c'est le silence total dans le bus, ils sont brulés. Pas pour se vanter mais les profs sont plus "tuff" que les élèves, mais on les aime quand même. On se reparle ce soir de notre hôtel de luxe à Xi'an. Je vous promets une photo de l'intérieur de notre chambre. Ni Hao... read more
