Hello from Beijing everyone! We made it after what felt like a pretty quick flight. Even though it was 13 hours of flying, it went fast until the last hour which dragged on like it would never end.
As we were landing, the air smelled differently. You can tell you are about to land in one of the most polluted places in regards to air. And they weren't kidding. A haze could be seen over everything.
When we landed it was 91 degrees. Very humid and sticky.
Our Chinese hosts were at the airport to greet us. Zhai Guanjun is the man on the right. He is a middle school teacher of 35 years here in Beijing. He works for a middle school that the teachers actually own and run. They have 3,000 students grades 7,8 & 9. It is a boarding school where kids go to school Monday thru Friday and go home on weekends.
Our other escort is Fan Zhonglin, she was also trained as a teacher. She has taught English and has traveled quite a bit. She went back to school to work on a Masters and is now back in Beijing. She is in charge of everything that was scheduled for us here.
Traffic here is just like anywhere else at 4:30 in the afternoon. We immediately headed for our hotel to drop off some things. Traffic rules seem to be optional.
Bikes, rickshaws, scooters, and pedestrians all share the road. Oh, and the highway. And places with green grass along the highway had people who were hanging out on it. I do not believe a picnic is allowed on the greens of Rt. 295 in Maine, but due to lack of space for recreation here, I guess this is where families go. They seemed quite unfazed by the traffic going by.
Upon first look through really jet-lagged eyes, Beijing seems to be very modern in some respects and very traditional in others. I will be exploring further in the next week.
This is the view outside of my hotel room.
I looked over and saw this cute kid staring at me. Above the child is a fan that blows directly down. One form of air conditioning. Many cars however are very modern, and all have air conditioning.
And just when I thought the last time I would see bean paste would be in Japan, I was surprised with it tonight at dinner. Ahhhh yes, the bean paste is back. And it tastes the same. I wonder if I will bite into something everyday for the next month that has it. Probably.
I thought this was mango. I was wrong. Bean paste. Yep, here we go again. . . .
Tomorrow we go to see Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City in the morning and the Dashanzi Art District (798 District) in the afternoon. For now, I am going to crash as I have been up for 27 hours straight. Goodnight. It is 8:30 pm.
Happy Fourth of July friends!
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