Beijing Day One

Beijing, China

We have arrived. So far it’s not much different than Dallas in many ways. Our long flight was probably considered a great flight but was so very long. I knew it was 13 hours but it didn’t sound as long before we did it. I remember asking, “It’s only been 4 hours? It’s only been 6 hours?” I thought we would sleep a lot of the flight but I think maybe everyone got about 3 hours total each. United did a good job though. Thanks Aunt Kaye! The seats were together in the center aisle of four seats. Big TV in the front and smaller TVs spaced along the ceiling. They played 3 movies that were kid appropriate and one movie that was kid boring with two breaks for 2 hours each of sitcom reruns. Many meals or snacks and drink carts came down the aisle all the time. We all thought the food was perfectly fine but maybe we didn’t have the same expectations previous families had? If you are in the back of the plane you get the last choice of what is left on the cart for meals. But they always still had what we wanted. Chicken Marsala, salad with ranch, roll & cookie. Later turkey sandwich, banana and raspberry danish at some point. There were 4 bathrooms behind us and several more up front and everything seemed to work fine. So we will call this a good flight. I’m glad an attendant had told us the tail end would “move” during takeoff. If I could have aborted the plan and taken a slow boat to China I would have. It felt like the plane was going to rip in two pieces. But apparently that’s normal since I was the only one concerned.

The shades were kept down so we didn’t know if it was daylight or not most of the time. We got up and walked around stretching many times. Once, when we were very far North over the arctic, looking out the window we could see large sheets of cracked ice. Dalton commented on how gigantic they must have been to look huge from as high up as we were. We did take the arctic flight path. Not exactly over the North Pole but very far North and then over Russia and down.

Angela (of ladybugsnlove.com) met us at the airport and was wonderful getting us to our apartment. I asked her questions almost the entire hour it took so have many facts about China to share. She kind of implied the fog we could see out of the airport was weather related but I’m not so sure. A boring drive on a highway that could have been in any US city with nothing to see until we got very close to the hotel district. Then busy, busy! She got us checked in and took us up to our apartment. It’s a two bedroom, 2 bathroom with kitchen and washer/dryer. Exactly what we needed to call our home base for the next 8 nights. Its very clean and secure. So far my only concern is trying to get some cooler air into the apartment. Turning the thermostats cooler makes the fans run but doesn’t seem to bring any cooler air in. And we can open the doors to either of our two balconies but the construction noises outside are loud. I have heard China is always building. Our plane arrived at 3:30 pm and I was ready for bed by 7pm. Couldn’t keep my eyes open even long enough to go out and buy some dinner so we settled for snacks we had packed for the plane and didn’t need. But now here it is 1 am and I am awake. Angela is picking us up at 8am for touring Friday. I need some more sleep if at all possible. The computer won’t go online from the room, or maybe I just can’t figure it out, so I’m typing this now and will post when I can. The business center opens 6am-11pm. Water is boiling in the kitchen now so it will cool before morning for tooth brushing. Friday we have to get to a bank to exchange money and buy some supplies for the room. Ann (of redthreadchina) had sent our power strip to the hotel and it seems to be charging the Iphones fine. In the morning we will venture out to the pedestrian shopping area nearby and find some breakfast. Maybe fresh eels? Or more likely McDonalds that is supposedly on the next street over. Save the exploring for when we have more time and not before we leave for a full day of sightseeing.