We arrived in Beijing about 12 hours ago. The flights were easy (as easy as 16 hours of flying can be) and we landed in Beijing just slightly ahead of schedule. The airport is a huge modern airport as you might expect with plenty of English signage and we passed through immigration, collected our bags and found our guide easily. We met up with another GWCA family adopting a little boy and together we drove about 20 minutes to our hotel. The hotel is called the Poly Plaza and it is ok sort of on par with and old Marriott needing a face lift.
By the time we got into our room it was about 4pm and we knew we would crash and burn if we stayed still too long so we exchanged some money in the hotel and got the concierge to write out the address for the Hard Rock Cafe along with a note explaining that we wanted to go there (on the reverse of the note he wrote similar instructions about taking us back to the hotel). We then jumped into a cab and made our way to the Hard Rock. ( I should explain that Dart gets a kick out of collecting tshirts from different Hard Rock cities. Sort of silly but it's a cheap vice and leaves more for all the jade and pearls I plan to buy for souvenirs so I just go with with.) Taxi's were easy to negotiate and the Beijing traffic I have heard about honestly didn't seem half as bad as Cairo, crazy by Stow Ohio standards sure but not the worst I've seen. At the Hard Rock we ate some food, each had one beer, got the tshirt and went back to the hotel.
I am pretty sure it didn't take more than 3 minutes after getting to our room before we passed out cold. I figure I got a good six hours of sleep which is more than I usually get at home. I feel good but it is 1am as I am typing this. Jet lag will not be my friend come this afternoon!
Macy is ours in 38 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
--
Lori Anderson-Printy
.jpg)
