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Part 1 Beijing
October 17 to 18
We left Dayton, Ohio at 10:19am on a Saab jet. That is a TINY 2 prop plane that
holds about 20 people including the pilot, co-pilot and the stewards. I felt
like I was on a plane from the 1930's. We landed in Detroit, Michigan at
11:30am. We then took off at 12:40pm on Oct 17th on a large 747 and arrived 14
hours later in Beijing, China at 2:20pm on Oct 18th. We flew over Alaska and I
was able to take one picture of something that looked like snow-capped
mountains. We had to keep the window shades down so people could sleep and we
only opened them between the movies to look out. It is nothing like
daylight for 24 plus hours.
Peter met us at the airport and apparently 4 families were on the same flight. I
had met Heidi and Michelle during the flight but found out that LuAnn was also
on it. Diane had arrived the day earlier and Shaye was not going to meet us
until we get to Nanjing. We stayed at the Peace Hotel in Beijing for 3 nights to
tour the area. The first night we saw the China Acrobatics at the China Beijing
Chao Yang Opera Plaza, I have seen them on TV but really enjoyed them in person
- they are awesome.
October 19
In the morning, we took a short 2-mile walk to Tian'anmen Square. It is so big.
I knew that it was big but not THAT big. We were told that about a million
people could fit in the square and now I understand how.
We then walked across the street to the Forbidden City. The city is about 1km
long and 700 meters wide. There are a lot of temples/rooms to explore but we
didn't have that much time. I think that we could have spent 3 or 4 days and
still not have seen every room. At one point we had to put on special orange
slippers to walk on some special "Gold" stones that are about 1200
years old. The place was just amazing.
Across the way is a temple that sits up on a hill that you have to climb. Took
my out of shape body about 30 min to climb the thousand or so steps straight up!
I had to stop 4 times. The view would have been great if the pollution and smog
was not so bad. We could only see about half of the Forbidden City and
surrounding area. The trip down was much easier and faster. Only had to stop
once to let some people pass.
We then went to a Pearl and Jade market to do some shopping. I bought way too
much but could have bought more. Heidi was very good at bartering so I stuck
close to her.
That night Michelle, Chuck, Shaye, Peter, Diane and myself went to the Peking
Opera. They had the words in both Chinese and English so we could follow along.
October 20 Mary’s first
birthday!
Up at 6am for a trip to the Great Wall. I went almost all the way to the top of
this section but my knees finally gave out. A lot of the steps, nearer to the
top, were almost vertical, where a comfortable step was only one or two stones
high, these were getting 3 and a lot of 4 stones high and narrow. At one point I
had to use my hands to crawl up a few steps. Also it is at an altitude and of
course the air was very polluted so I had to stop a lot. Bob only made it to the
first tower and I am glad that he had stopped - there was no way he could have
made it.
Peter then took us to a friendship store where we had lunch at a lazy Susan
buffet type table and then some more shopping of course.
The next stop was the Ming Tombs through the Sacred Way of stone animals and
statues. The stone carvings were magnificent. At the end was our pre-new family
photo opportunity.
NEXT
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Copyright 2002
last modified on 04/21/2002 01:01:53 PM
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