China Day 1

Saturday October 4th:  Not an exciting day as it was a travel day.  I guess the exciting part for me was that what I believed to be a 7 hour flight was only actually 5 hours!  Bonus!  Woo hoo!  We flew Sing Air and really enjoy this airline.  Reason?  We get to choose our own movies or tv shows to watch on demand.  Love it.

 We arrived at our destination without incident, gathered our luggage and met our driver.  We knew it would be an interesting trip by two things that happened in this time span.  One:  the boys and I got an eyeful of a guy digging for gold with gusto while waiting for his luggage, and Two: as we were walking out, an Asian gentleman couldn't help himself and touched my son Jim's face.  You'll see.  This became common.  We're celebrities in Beijing.

We opted to stay at the Ascott Beijing.  This was a perfect choice for us.  The place was spacious!  Two bedrooms, kitchen, dining area, daily housekeeping.  Also cheaper than two hotel rooms.  What's not to love?  It was great, and I highly recommend this option for traveling families.

We arrived at the Ascott around 4 - 5 pm exhausted and hungry. The hotel property comes with a Starbucks, Subway, Japanese restaurant, Singaporean restaurant, and an Italian restaurant.  We thought we'd hit the Subway and rest up for tomorrow.  Unfortunately we were informed at the front desk that the Subway was closed for the holiday. (China celebrates Golden Week in the fall.  We were hitting the last weekend of this holiday.)  But luck was on our side!  A nice man I call Tex overheard our plans and directed us to Grandma's Kitchen restaurant which was a 5 minute walk away.  I quickly agreed.  I had this restaurant on a list of recommended spots from John's first grade teacher who had lived in Beijing. 

We dropped off our stuff, unpacked, and braved the walk to Grandma's kitchen.   The Kitchen was home-y and quaint and decorated all  "country style".  We all ordered and enjoyed our first night in Beijing.  During the meal, I noticed a peculiar look on Joe's face.   It was the look of relief.   Can you see it?

Poor kid.  He is such a picky eater.  He won't even eat steamed rice.  We had been warning him over and over that he wouldn't find much to eat in China if he wasn't willing to try new things.  I think he took that a bit too much to heart.  He was so happy here.

Impressions of the day:  

1.  Beijing is really pretty at night.  The sun would set each night around 6 pm and was up each morning before us.  We were getting up around 6 am every day.

2.  Traffic is really scary. Crossing the street was a mild adventure.  Not horrible, but interesting!

Coming tomorrow:  Qing Tombs.     (Qing = "Ching")