Tuesday-ish, May 8 (or so)
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After a long flight from San Francisco, with a stopover
at Tokyo's Narita airport, we arrived in Beijing. We had left on May 7th,
but when we crossed the date line, it became May 8th. Our bodies weren't too
sure of the current time, but it was dark out, so we started to adjust to
the new time zone, 15 hours later than Pacific Standard time.
Note: Even though China extends over the equivalent of five
time zones, the official time in all the provinces (except Inner
Mongolia) is Beijing time. They are willing to have major discrepancies
in sunrise/sunset times to avoid the problems of having to deal with
local time. When a plane takes off at 4:15, you know when that is. When
somebody calls at an odd hour you don't get to ask: "Do you know
what time it is here?"
First Impressions: Beijing Airport was just like any other
modern airport. The signs have a lot of English on them. All sorts of
consumer products are being advertised. Lots of neon signs. No sign of the
"grayness" that used to be associated with socialist states. The streets are full of late model
European and Japanese cars as well as hordes of bicycles. The drivers leave a lot less room around their
cars than we do. |
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We are met by representatives of Ritz Tours, collect our
baggage, and are taken to the Beijing New Century Hotel were our rooms
are waiting for us.
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Wednesday, May 9
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Up at 6AM. We seem to have adjusted to the jet lag already.
I guess those little pills we bought
in the luggage shop do some good after all! Walk out of the hotel and over
to the big boulevard nearby. It's all torn up with the construction of an
underpass. Morning traffic is a mixture of busses, taxis, private cars,
lots of bicycles, and pedestrians. There is a major bus terminal out in
the middle of the road. |
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By the side of the road a young man with a stove attached
to his bicycle is preparing breakfast fast food for the construction
workers. He is taking balls of dough, flattening them, deep frying them,
and wrapping them around a fried egg. It smells delicious. We are tempted,
but aren't ready to be adventurous yet. Besides, breakfast is waiting for
us back at the hotel.
Breakfast is a buffet with Western, Chinese, and Japanese items. We get
to meet some of the rest of our group. There will be eighteen of us on
this tour, just about the perfect size! |
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After breakfast, we start our visit by going to the
Summer Palace, a vast complex around a man-made lake where the
Imperial court would go to keep cool when it got hot in Beijing. |
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Next stop, a cloisonné
factory (with gift shop attached) |
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The Temple of Heaven
is an ancient pagoda with a commanding view out over the city. |
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And last, but certainly not least, the Forbidden
City and Tienanmen Square. |
Thursday, May 10
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On the way to the Great Wall, we stop first at the Ming
Tombs |
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The Great Wall is one of the things that is
right at the top of everybody's "must see" list. |
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On the way back we stop at a Jade
processor. |
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 The
gift shop has these vases with scenes of the flight into Egypt.
Christianity came to China in the sixth century and had a local
expression. It was suppressed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
and later reintroduced by missionaries. |
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 The
gift shop also sells terracotta warrior reproductions. |
Friday, May 11
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This is scheduled as a free day for us to explore Beijing. Our guide
arranges an optional tour of and old section of
the city (called a "Hutong")
by pedicab. This was the highpoint of our visit to Beijing, the time when
we felt closest to knowing how the people lived. |
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Afterwards we visit a Buddhist temple in
the Tibetan Lamaism tradition. |
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Finally we capped off the day by taking a few of our fellow tourists
along for a sumptuous Imperial Banquet style dinner at the finest
restaurant in Beijing: Fang Shan in Beihai Park. |
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Saturday, May 12
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