On to Beijing

This morning we woke up at 5:30am and got dressed. Then we finished packing and got our bags outside the room. We finished getting ready for the day and then went to have some breakfast and coffee. After about a 45 minute meal we returned to our room. We had some time before we needed to leave so I worked on pictures and journaling while Thomas read. At 9:00am we met in the lobby and climbed on board the bus. It took about an hour to get to the airport. At the airport Arnold gave us our passports, boarding passes and lunch. Then we went through security and made our way to Gate H18. We are on China Eastern Flight MU2105 to Beijing. I am in seat 44C and Thomas is in seat 44J. We started boarding around 10:50am and took off at 11:35am. About 45 minutes into the flight they served us a meal – chicken rice or beef noodles with a snack box. We only got the snack box since Viking supplied us lunches. The snack box had some crunchy peas that were delicious and a date with a walnut inside which was surprisingly good. There was also juice and bottled water. For most of the flight I journaled and read – I started a new book on this flight. It was just after 1:30pm when we landed in Beijing. By the time we got off the plane and collected all of our luggage it was 3:00pm. We walked to the bus and in no time we were off to our first excursion. We met up with our local tour guide and she walked us a short distance to a small park. Then gave us a small rubber disk (about an inch in diameter) with feathers sticking up on one side. She told us we were going to play hacky sack. It was just like hacky sack at home but not with a small ball. We did have fun moving around and trying to kick this little feathered doodad (which we got to keep). After about 30 minutes we walked from the park to a small neighborhood – a Beijing Hutong. Here we got into some rickshaws (pedal powered by a local) and we took a tour through the hutong. It was a 20 minute ride and then we arrived at a home to visit a local family. We entered and all sat around and had tea while the woman (Mrs. Wong) told us about her family and life. Once she had finished talking we were able to ask questions. Her niece was there and she does painting inside glass bottles. She demonstrated her work and then we were able to buy a piece if we wanted. We spent about 30 minutes here and then returned to our rickshaw for another ride to the Bell and Drum Tower. Our tour guide gave us some history and then we went inside the tower for a tea ceremony. We learned about different types of tea and got to taste about four varieties. This was interesting but as has become the usual it was also a sales pitch. After the tasting we could peruse the shop and buy tea and stuff if we wanted.

 Once everyone had finished shopping we headed out to get some dinner. It was around 5:30 when we arrived at a local restaurant for dinner. It was a lazy susan style meal where they put different dishes out and you spin it around to get what you want. The meal was good and I was stuffed by the time we left. After dinner we headed for our hotel – Fairmont Beijing. Arnold got our room keys (we had room 917) and we were done for the day. Thomas and I both took showers and got settled into the room. I was able to only get a little photo editing done before my eyes started closing and I decided to put things away and get some sleep. We have our first full day in Beijing tomorrow and I want to be rested.