Here is a short version of everything we've seen since we've left: The airport security line in the US was amazingly long. We were warned that since the Boston attacks, there were many police officers in waiting. Thanks to Dan's flight status though we were able to skip through the large lines and get checked in. We also bumped up to United's Economy Plus, which was a huge bonus for us. The added leg room made a big difference.
After 11+ hours of flying we arrived in China on what was Thursday afternoon for them. It was bright and sunny when we arrived with a bit of a haze covering the air. It wasn't clear if that was general fog or smog. We took a taxi from the airport to our hostel, Sitting on the City Walls. Our taxi driver didn't speak any English, but by showing him the name in Chinese characters, he found it. Traffic was heavy but not chaotic.
The driver dropped us off and we entered the hutong (one of the original alleys for the city) where our hostel was. It was a dusty back alley and we got nervous thinking "what did we get ourselves in to?!"
We walked past residences, shops, people standing in the alley and weren't sure where we were going. An older man saw us and pointed us around the corner without any asking. Stepping around the corner, we found our hostel! Compared with what we'd just walked through, we were pleased to see that it was very nice and that the woman who checked us in spoke English. She gave us some great tips for visiting the Great Wall, Tian'anmen Square, the Drum-Tower, HouHai lake, and several other local sites (shopping, night market, etc). We did a brief bit of walking around the hostel after unpacking, and found a place to eat some dinner for the night. Then we promptly both passed out for the night.
Friday we set out to go see Tian'anmen Square, the Forbidden City, and a little extra shopping along the way. We immediately got sidetracked with a stop to the Beihai Park, where we got to see the White Dagoba. It was a cool day filled with A LOT of walking. As we climbed stairs at the park, we felt shortness of breath, due largely to the low air quality. We resisted persistent offers for rickshaw rides and low-quality souvenirs. Getting around, we were impressed by the separate bike lanes, but realized quickly we needed to be aware when crossing even with the walk signal, as cars and bikes will turn and beep at you instead of stopping.
Our hostel is really comfortable. We've met another American who is also traveling the world named Jennifer. She'll be writing a book about her travels. We also met an Australian who works in Sweden for TetraPak. His name is Ian and we enjoyed visiting the night market with him last night. The night market was quite an experience. There were all kinds of creatures for sale as food: spiders, baby shark, snake, squid, silk worm, cat, dog, starfish, sea urchin, millipedes, crickets, scorpions, pig intestine, tripe. The salespeople kept offering us the oddities "snake!" "cat-meow!" We settled on trying some Chinese cheese, pineapple rice, fried bananas (paid more for the bananas than expected), potstickers and dumplings. We were also able to buy some beer from a woman selling it on the street.
Heather has had some fun trying to learn and try out some of the language, including Zao shang hao (good morning) and Tai gui le! (too expensive!)
It's Saturday morning and sunny again. Today, we're planning on visiting the Summer Palace and the Bird's Nest. We'll try out the public transportation system.
We'll work on posting pictures when we can. We took A LOT yesterday, including many fine Engrish examples.
Heather & Dan
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