Day 1 - Beijing

We have arrived at our hotel in Beijing.  We sat next to a woman, Clair, traveling with her 18-month-old daughter, Lily, on the way from Denver to San Francisco.  Lily was very cute and a really good traveler.  Turns out they were also on our plane to Beijing and we sat in the same row again, but on opposite sides of the plane.  Lily's dad is already here competing in a strong man competition further to the south, so they are going to meet up with him.

The flights went very well. It seems like there was either a movie playing or food service happening the entire time - 4 movies and 3 meals on the 12-hour flight.  The food was decent for airplane fare.  There was turbulence during the entire descent into Beijing...not the worst turbulence but for probably 30 minutes or so.  A boy near us was laughing quite a bit, as if on an amusement park ride.  Hubs was looking a bit green.  We are seriously considering paying for upgraded seats for the flight home because either we grew taller since the last time we did an international flight or the legroom got a lot smaller.  With a babe along for the ride, the upgrade seems smart.

I hit the ladies room in the airport right away.  The entrance hallway to the restroom was large, similar to that at SFO, where there were probably 20 toilet stalls.  In Beijing, there were 3...a disabled stall, a regular toilet, and a squatty potty - you know this because there are pictoral diagrams on the doors, a typical disabled symbol with a wheelchair, a drawing of a toilet, and a drawing of a squatty potty with two little feet pointing in the right direction.  With the other 2 available, not sure that someone would choose the squatty potty, but when it came free, a woman a few back in the line took the opportunity.  I passed. 

The traveling did not end with arrival at the airport.  We made it through the various checkpoints without a problem.  Our guide, George, sent a driver to get us at the airport because he was busy giving a city tour to another family.  The driver had to pick up another family at another terminal who were coming to the same hotel.  We drove around for about 20 minutes to get from terminal 3 to terminal 2 and then waited in a covered parking area while the driver went to pick up the other family and then took what felt like a very long drive through Beijing to get to our hotel.  The other family is here for a heritage tour with their 2 adopted daughters.  The city is really large and we were traveling through quite a bit of traffic.  We finally arrived to the hotel about 3 hours after we landed at the airport. 

We met our guide in the lobby and he got us checked in, but more adventure was still before us.  The other family's room was on the 4th floor and we were on the 6th, so the bell hop took their bags to their room first.  We went on to the 6th floor.  The room key did not open the door.  It is a card key and no matter how we held it, we got a red light as a response.  We thought it best to wait for the bell hop....but it was sure taking him a long time.  So, we went back down to the lobby and were immediately greeted by the concierge.  It appears they were looking for us.  Our room was also on the 4th floor but the front desk clerk wrote "6."  He just kind of chuckled when the concierge seemed to be scolding him a bit...Came back up to the 4th floor this time and the key worked - yay!  We had been tipped off that there is a slot in the wall where the room key goes to turn on the lights in the room.  It took some jimmying, but the bell hop got that working after a little effort.  Glad he was there for that part or we may have found ourselves back in the lobby looking for some assistance.

The hotel is older and the room is adequate.  The rumors are true...the beds are VERY hard.  We are tired enough that we'll just be glad to have a bed but glad this is only a 3 night deal.  Hard beds and I do not get along well...Hubs already contaminated his toothbrush with the tap water.....and there went a 2nd one.  Oh boy. 

VPN not working for me right now but I'm able to access gmail so I could sent this post that way.  Thanks to Princess Teri for reminding me to get that set up before we left :)  If the pictures I've attached come through okay, the one that looks like it might be the surface of the moon was taken out the airplane window that I think was in the northeast of Siberia near the Bering Sea.  The other is our self portrait on the plane to China!