Sunday morning, I felt surprisingly ready for the trip on one level: bags packed, everything fit, everyone was up and ready to go. Totally unprepared on another: we don’t know when Dan is getting to Beijing, or from where, or where we’ll meet each other, or where we’ll stay. Fortunately, an AM email from Dan answered part of that: he should get .JPG)
to Beijing around 4:00, about 5 hours before us… if everyone makes their connections. He also sent a cell phone # and said that the internet cafes have English keyboards. At least we should be able to find each other eventually if one of us doesn’t arrive on time.
Ted, Cindy and Betsy ran us to Richmond Airport. We made it to Detroit OK but were delayed there due to a high-pitched buzz in the speaker system… which they never fixed. So we heard the whine for the 12 hour flight to Narita/Tokyo.
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We bought some Airborne, an overpriced zinc/mineral/vitamin supplement that’s supposed to ward off illness on long flights. A word about the product. Before you pop a tablet, read the directions, which say to dissolve in 8 ounces of water. I didn’t read, and I fed it to Adam and Judy. If you’re old enough, you remember Fizzies. We foamed at the mouth for a few minutes, but we didn’t get sick on the flight, so I guess it worked.
The Northwest Airlines flight to Tokyo.JPG)
was on an older 747-400 and we were in the back – under the buzzing speaker – but I think most folks got some sleep. A rush to our Narita connection, but we made it and so did our bags. We reached Beijing Airport on time, at 9:20 PM… on the road for just over 24 hours by the time we cleared customs. We had to wait awhile for Dan, who’d been scouting out hotels. He found us, though, and led us by bus and subway to the Bamboo Garden Hotel north of the Forbidden City, where we arrived around midnight. It was beautiful, and really had gardens among groupings of hotel outbuildings. There are a couple of pictures at the beginning of today's entry.
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Judy and I had the luxury of internet in our room, so we spent some time figuring out where we’d stay the rest of the time in Beijing – Dan had only been able to book one night. We found the Tailong Hotel on Dong An Men Avenue, just a couple of blocks east of the Forbidden City. A pretty basic hotel, but air-conditioned, extremely convenient and at around $30/room, less than 1/3rd of Bamboo Garden. A good place to camp out. We were able to put down a deposit on the 19th to 21st, but since it was already the morning of the 18th we couldn’t book that.
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to Beijing around 4:00, about 5 hours before us… if everyone makes their connections. He also sent a cell phone # and said that the internet cafes have English keyboards. At least we should be able to find each other eventually if one of us doesn’t arrive on time.Ted, Cindy and Betsy ran us to Richmond Airport. We made it to Detroit OK but were delayed there due to a high-pitched buzz in the speaker system… which they never fixed. So we heard the whine for the 12 hour flight to Narita/Tokyo.
.JPG)
We bought some Airborne, an overpriced zinc/mineral/vitamin supplement that’s supposed to ward off illness on long flights. A word about the product. Before you pop a tablet, read the directions, which say to dissolve in 8 ounces of water. I didn’t read, and I fed it to Adam and Judy. If you’re old enough, you remember Fizzies. We foamed at the mouth for a few minutes, but we didn’t get sick on the flight, so I guess it worked.
The Northwest Airlines flight to Tokyo
.JPG)
was on an older 747-400 and we were in the back – under the buzzing speaker – but I think most folks got some sleep. A rush to our Narita connection, but we made it and so did our bags. We reached Beijing Airport on time, at 9:20 PM… on the road for just over 24 hours by the time we cleared customs. We had to wait awhile for Dan, who’d been scouting out hotels. He found us, though, and led us by bus and subway to the Bamboo Garden Hotel north of the Forbidden City, where we arrived around midnight. It was beautiful, and really had gardens among groupings of hotel outbuildings. There are a couple of pictures at the beginning of today's entry..JPG)
Judy and I had the luxury of internet in our room, so we spent some time figuring out where we’d stay the rest of the time in Beijing – Dan had only been able to book one night. We found the Tailong Hotel on Dong An Men Avenue, just a couple of blocks east of the Forbidden City. A pretty basic hotel, but air-conditioned, extremely convenient and at around $30/room, less than 1/3rd of Bamboo Garden. A good place to camp out. We were able to put down a deposit on the 19th to 21st, but since it was already the morning of the 18th we couldn’t book that.
.JPG)
