We Made It!

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Geo: 39.9056, 116.396

Our 13-1/2 hour flight and 13 hour time change ended at 7:00pm at the Beijing International Airport. The airport is huge -- after walking a good distance, we took a train several miles and then walked some more to the baggage claim area. We had our bags in 15-20 minutes and buzzed through Customs (they only randomly x-rayed bags). Jo, our tour guide, met us with a China Spree sign outside of Baggage Claim and told us that she would be with us the entire trip and that she was waiting for five others who were on our flight.

After the others were met by Jo, we all exchanged greetings and were on a small bus to Traders Hotel. The bus ride was about 30 minutes. The hotel is located in the CBD across the street from Beijing's tallest building. The trees were all strung with purple lights which gave it a festive feel. The city is very clean and cosmopolitan.

Jo took all of our passports and got us checked into our rooms. While waiting, we got 2500 RMB from the ATM. We were told that the ATM and bank exchange rates are the same.

Our room is very comfortable, though with three beds, it does not have a lot of floor space.

Sue and Dave, having had two dinners on the flight, didn't need it, but Brennan slept through the last dinner and wanted something to eat. Jo told us our options were the restaurant at the hotel or the McDonald's on the street -- easy choice. The aromas and our talking about chicken feet and duck lips left Brennan pretty apprehensive about the food at the restaurant! It was a self service place where you ordered from several different counters and then the chefs prepared it on the spot. Our choices were Western type food, noodle soup, Asian, sushi, etc. Brennan finally settled on chicken with noodles and bok choy. Sue had beef soup with noodles and Dave had shrimp and noodles -- all excellent and Brennan asked "Can we come back to Beijing for the noodles?!" He also did very well with chop sticks.

Back to the room where we called Bligh and Dan, organized a day sack for our first day of touring and were in bed by 11:00pm. The alarm was set for 6:40am so that we could have breakfast and be on the bus by 8:15am.

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