Getting onto the plane itself was fairly uneventful except for the drug sniffing K9 they had patroling the on-ramp of the plane. Luckily it seems that if drugs are inside your stomach in condom baggies they don't give off any smell. Still that dog did make us nervous, if only there was some way to get bvack at his species while we're here in China, some delicious way...
The flight was long and cramped and everything we thought it would be.
In Beijing we got a cab from the airport (our driver spending most of his time using the right shoulder as a lane, veering wildly when a car actually happened to be broken down there) to Peking International Hostel. The hostel is great, super cheap and really nice with an outdoor courtyard at it's center. Now after taking an 18 hour flight to the other side of the world most reasonable people would rest for a bit to get their bearings. Fortunately neither of us are very reasonable.
Beau and I left about a half hour after arriving (8:30pm here or so, 7:30am our time) and wandered into downtown Beijing (one of many as I understand it) which was lit up like Time Square. After aimlessly gawking at everything for a bit we were appraoched by a guy (yes, a Chinese guy) who said his name was Peace and he was an English teacher with his two students, Ina and another young girl who's name we didn't get. Somehow we ended up getting swept up into a little room with dozens of teas in glass jars where we were given traditional Chinese tea service for the next 3 hours. The entire time Peace was super hospitable - almost like he owned the place (which come to think of it...) - asking me questions ranging from how many siblings I have to what my state's flower was. By the end of the ceremony this guy knew more about Beau and I than we do. Then the inevitable bill arrived and we realized we just spent somewhere between 200-300 US on tea. Looking back though the experience was certianly worth it.
Anyway, we're headed into the Forbidden city today. There will be pictures and more posted later on tonight.
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4 comments:
Glad to hear you got there - the tea sounded fun but watch out for the scams!! Did you here the story about the couple of rubes who pulled into town and...?
-Dad
You guys rock
Hope you guys are having a blast and because of you two I KNOW BLOG! well i havnt writen shit yet. but i will. Showlin temple huh....good luck thats the least i can say...keep up the good stories, im living vicariously threw u at the moment,
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