April 29, 2010, Thursday morning. We actually got into Chicago about 10 minutes *early*. I'd been sweating it out - since we only had a 90-minute layover for an International flite - so was quite happy that we were early. Then we got off the plane and figured we'd need to sprint to another terminal - only to find out that our departure terminal was *right across the hall*. Oh. We're here. Cool. We checked the lounge which was (surprise!!!) full of Chinese people, then grabbed some lunch and walked around a little until time to board. We did manage to bump into one other couple on our tour - from Indiana. Found them by looking for the "Odyssey's International" luggage tags. Then we shuffled onto a *very* full 777. It *is* a wide-body, but it was crammed full and I was quite surprised that they were using it for a 14-hour flite: pretty tight. I started getting really worried about how I'd do. We were in a group of 5-across: Kathy, me, "Mike" - a Chinese-looking guy who actually is from Canada, another Canadian, and a Chinese woman. Poor Mike was *really* squished in.
But we did OK. The seats had individual entertainment units in them - so I watched "Sherlock Holmes" about 3 times - and think I caught a lot of nuances that I hadn't before - and enjoyed "Young Frankenstein" a couple of times - and we got fed 3 times (Raman noodles once) - and it was OK. Yeah, the 13-hour flite dragged by the end, but we were a little early getting in - and the 6700 miles went pretty easily. Up over Canada and Alaska. Bering Strait. Most of the time we couldn't see anything: we weren't near any windows - but the flite was in daylight the whole way and when we got up to walk around, we looked out and saw the ice floes and mountains in Alaska and the Bering Strait. And for anybody who ever played "Risk" - we flew right over "Ka-Match-Ka" and on down into Beijing. We followed the whole flite on the moving map choice of the video display - and watched as we crossed the International Date Line - and moved us to Friday instead of Thursday - but we ultimately have decided not to bother to change our watches at all: we're exactly 12 hours off, so I just swap AM for PM - and we're done. So. We arrived at about 2:30PM Friday afternoon - Beijing time - and really didn't have any trouble finding our luggage or our guide. We were on the bus by 3:30PM - and rode to downtown Beijing - past lots of traffic. Chen, our guide, said that the Beijing car show is going on right now and that Beijing is adding 2000 cars *per day* to the roads. Also said that a 700-sq-foot high-rise apartment goes for about $400/month - and most residents only *make* $400/month - so that a small apartment will be shared by 5 or 6 people - even mixing gender in the same room.
The temperature was delightful: 72 degrees - and it's been a beautiful sunny day. In contrast to the flite - where it said it got all the way down to MINUS 74 degrees F - while we were at 34,000 feet over the Bering Strait.
At this point, we checked into our rooms - really nice, but odd in some ways: the wall between the bedroom and the bathroom - is glass. You can pull down a curtain, but the "default" is to have a clear view from the desk where I'm writing - right on into the shower.
The view from our room looks right out over the tallest building in Beijing: the "stubbed off" one - the "China World Trade Center" - at 1083 ft. And the CCTV building - the oddly-shaped one to the right. That's the one that caught *fire* while they were celebrating the opening (a firework landed on the 14th floor and started a fire - and the building wasn't finished - so no sprinkler system). The "legs" building is OK - but the one next to it is still burned and rusted. Photos of that another time.
We were pretty wrung out: we'd left home about 24 hours earlier, but we knew that we should force ourselves to stay up.
So I checked out the computer connection: really cool to see Firefox bring up it's home page in *Chinese*.
And we walked over next door to (wait for it) - WalMart!!! Yup. A HUGE WalMart is right next door to our hotel. Down in the basement of a high-rise building - probably bigger than most Super Wal-Marts at home.
So we wandered around admiring all of the interesting-looking foods. Including *live* eel. The place was quite busy - clearly the Chinese have no problem buying at Wal-Mart. I suppose that makes sense: everything Wal-Mart sells is made in China anyway. We bot a 12-pack of bottled water (they warned us to NOT drink any tap water) - and were glad that Kathy had been smart enough to change $100 before we left home. Yuan - or "RMB"'s are about 6.71 to the dollar. Our total bill for water, Oreo's, and Chips a-hoy - was only 22 RMB - or about $7. We also enjoyed finding Pringles in some odd flavors: Clam, Shrimp, and Spicy Chicken - though we didn't try them.
Back to our "Sofitel Wanda" hotel for dinner. A very-interesting buffet with lots of choices - but I was quite suprised when they brought the bill: 661 RMB - or about $100 for the 2 of us. No tipping, but - *ouch*. We took a little-bit-each of a bunch of new-looking things - and haven't yet found anything that didn't taste good!
Then back to the room to *Crash* at 8PM. We woke up a couple of times overnite, but we slept soundly and pretty well in our king-sized bed.
We're in *China*!!!
We've been told that our schedule has already been altered: May 1 is a huge holiday here, so they're taking us to the Great Wall tomorrow - instead of the next day - to avoid the crowds that are expected at the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.
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