On to Beijing

Five AM is early, no matter what city or time zone one finds themselves in anywhere in the world. Our driver was right on time and traffic was light and the almost hour trip back to Hong Kong's airport was a little shorter than the first one but still almost an hour. We were at the airport before anything opened and flew Hong Kong Air to Beijing in an Airbus A130. Very comfortable and unlike American carriers, the plane was not crammed full of seats, and the passengers were not carrying everything they owned to avoid bag fees.

Once we got to Customs it seemed that none of us had an entry card. Oops. No one had handed them out on the plane but it wasn't a problem and the gentleman at Immigration was not ruffled. Our car and driver were waiting and it was on to the Sun World Hotel. This turned out to be an inspired choice. We walked around a very big block exploring. Much of the city was still decorated from National Day, a week long celebration.

We also came across this mosque and a very nice man who didn't speak a word of English showed us around. We may have even been lost but all of a sudden we were at our hotel's corner and the reputation of Daniel Boone was safe for another day. We found the supermarket and for less than five dollars had water and cokes and were good to go. As the tap water is not potable, every hotel gave us one bottle of water per day, and then would gladly sell us as many as we'd like.

These guarded a school across the street from our hotel.  Having been told that the restaurant next to our hotel was good, we ate there and for $2.58, had noodle soup that was incredible, and yes, we ate it with chopsticks. Nothing like slurping a long noodle but when in Beijing . . . .

Our host, Tom, was also an artist, and he 'gave' us an anniversary gift from his restaurant and then sold us some of his artwork. Twelve dollars for a traditional Chinese painting of Bamboo on silk paper. It will hang in my man cave.

Right around the corner was the Catholic Church, which was very important to Bernie, and she would attend Mass there on Sunday. Even in Mandarin it was easy to follow. While church was not in session, the people of Beijing were in attendance practicing Tai Chi, dancing, and performing on the steps of the church.

 Quite by accident, and this goes back to the hotel being an inspired choice, we were right by a massive pedestrian mall which Google claims is the equivalent of Fifth Avenue in New York or Ginza in Tokyo. Wangfujing Street had everything from vendors selling deep-fried starfish, scorpions, and silk-worm larva to Gucci and Louis Vuitton. We saw the Chinese at their finest and spent the first of three nights in this area.