The things you find when you go exploring. These eels were in the a tank at a hotel restaurant.
Belated Independence Day wishes to everyone back home in the States! We hope you had a blast (literally, of course)!
We would like to extend our sincere apologies for the paucity of posts in the last five days; as you probably all know, traveling overseas is a exhausting proposition. We felt we wouldn't do things justice by writing two word posts for you, our loyal readers, to see.
Our first impression of Beijing as we rode to the hotel the first morning was: “wow, this place is enormous!” There is new construction everywhere; heavy construction equipment clogging the smaller roadways, cement dust in the air, cranes lining the skyline. Gently rolling countryside quickly gave way to expressways and cookie cutter high-rise apartment complexes. New shiny corporate skyscrapers marked most every major intersection.
After our twelve hour delay, we arrived at the Beijing airport at 3:30 in the morning. We cleared immigration and customs and met our tour guide, Jo Jo. We ended up checking in to the hotel at around 5 AM. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we crashed down for a nice nap (that is, the elders among us) before setting out on our first day's outing, Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City.
The hotel in Beijing was built on an enormous scale, just like the rest of the city. The lobby, pictured below (pictures to come), was an exercise in bold-faced extravagance, the kind of thing you’d see in Las Vegas.
We would like to extend our sincere apologies for the paucity of posts in the last five days; as you probably all know, traveling overseas is a exhausting proposition. We felt we wouldn't do things justice by writing two word posts for you, our loyal readers, to see.
Our first impression of Beijing as we rode to the hotel the first morning was: “wow, this place is enormous!” There is new construction everywhere; heavy construction equipment clogging the smaller roadways, cement dust in the air, cranes lining the skyline. Gently rolling countryside quickly gave way to expressways and cookie cutter high-rise apartment complexes. New shiny corporate skyscrapers marked most every major intersection.
After our twelve hour delay, we arrived at the Beijing airport at 3:30 in the morning. We cleared immigration and customs and met our tour guide, Jo Jo. We ended up checking in to the hotel at around 5 AM. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we crashed down for a nice nap (that is, the elders among us) before setting out on our first day's outing, Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City.
The hotel in Beijing was built on an enormous scale, just like the rest of the city. The lobby, pictured below (pictures to come), was an exercise in bold-faced extravagance, the kind of thing you’d see in Las Vegas.
The lobby is enormous.
Mom and dad checking in with the tour guide, Jo Jo.
If the Chinese are emulating Las Vegas in their new development, we will have a much more serious environmental and resource crisis on our hands sooner than we ever imagined.
She's an environmental disaster in the making. This is Melissa after more than 24 hours of not showering.We set out for the heart of Beijing at around 2 PM, refreshed from a much needed shower, a good nap, and some mostly well-done Western food. (Yes, Western food. Don't look at me like that.) It’s hard to put into words what it was like to walk through Tian’anmen Square and the Forbidden City, so we'll let our photographs do the talking for us.
Much more to come in the next hours and days!
Dan's Food Column for Wednesday, July 4th: Sometimes, you just want something familiar while you’re getting your bearings in another country. I ordered a cut of beef tenderloin with a black pepper sauce and french fries for lunch at the hotel today. They made a pretty good effort at it; it was pretty good.
For dinner, our tour guide brought us to a Chinese chain restaurant. The food was decidedly subpar.
1 comment:
pictures people! I can't wait to see what it's all like. Hope you're having a great time all of you and wishing you well!
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