Wrapping Up Our First Day in Beijing

Before I turn in for the night, here is one final update for today. The next few days will be extremely busy so I don't know how much down time I'll have to blog.

Beijing is an extremely clean city - at least everywhere we've been. Everywhere you look there are street sweepers - and I don't mean the mechanical kind. Below is a picture of the two sweepers that keep the driveway to our hotel immaculate at all times. Even the floor of the parking garage at the airport was squeaky clean. There was not a drop of oil or any other type of fluid anywhere. I'm sure there are places in the city that are not so clean, but we haven't seen them. The only exception to the whole cleanliness factor is that people spit EVERYWHERE. When walking to dinner tonight, you had to constantly watch where you stepped because there is spit everywhere. Dad - you'd love it here! :)

This is the view from the window of our hotel room. The streets are very busy with pedestrians, bicycles of all shapes and sizes, and cars. Watching traffic from up here is a hoot. As far as I can tell, the only traffic rule that exists is "the bigger the vehicle, the faster you better run or pedal to get out of the way"! Pedestrians do NOT have the right-of-way.

T his is the view from our room at night. This picture really doesn't do it justice as there are so many beautiful lights.

We slept in today and missed the complimentary breakfast buffet so we hit the lunch buffet instead. Mom was so not impressed with the shrimp that watched her while she ate! They did have some fantastic smoked salmon, tuna, sushi, and desserts on the buffet. Everything else was excellent as well. However we learned a very expensive lesson at lunch... ALWAYS check prices and convert the RMB to USD before making any purchase decisions. The lunch buffet for the three of us was almost $100!! We will not be eating lunch here in the hotel again!

This is the lobby of our hotel. It is very beautiful and not a speck of dirt to be found anywhere!
Around 5 this afternoon, a bus arrived carrying the Eliases and the rest of the families in our travel group. It was so good to see some other familiar faces! Kaycee and Kris still looked like they had a little energy but it waned very fast.

Doug missed his little buddy Shawn! I think these two were quite happy to see each other. :)

Once Kris, Shawn, and Kaycee got settled in, we headed up the block for pizza. Did you know that they put pineapple on Pizza Hut Super Supreme Pan Pizza in China? Neither does Doug. He ate it and didn't even notice!! Hmmm... wonder if I can now start to get away with ordering it like that at home!

Our dinner party at Pizza Hut.

Kris and I were going to order some of these tasty appetizers but didn't know how to say lamb balls in Chinese so we just stuck with pizza and soda with no ice!

We cannot have ice in restaurants or drink tap water, or even brush our teeth with tap water as it can make for some very unpleasant gastro-intestinal experiences!! So, we drink soda without ice and brush our teeth using bottled water.
Poor Kaycee - she didn't even make it through dinner and she was out! She did wake up enough to eat and walk back to the hotel.

After dinner, everyone returned to the hotel except for Mom and me. We shopped at a Wonderful Market next door to our hotel. It is a combination flea market, electronics market, and grocery store and had lots of really cool stuff. We bought Evian bottled water for the next few days. I also found a CUTE little hat for Maddie. They have some really great bargains and I can't wait to go back there with Kris to shop some more!

Well, it's time for me to say good night. I want to get up early tomorrow morning and head down to the hotel fitness room before we take off for a day of tours and sight-seeing.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers! Much Love, Beth, Doug, & Mom