Ni Hao from Beijing!

We're here! Our flights were GREAT--Asiana deserves its great ratings! We left Chicago at 1:00am Tuesday and at 2:00am they served us the most delicious steak--I don't mean delicious by airline standards, I mean DELICIOUS. And free wine. And we were assigned the bulkhead seat, so we had tons of leg room. And did I mention the steak and free wine? And there were toothbrushes and toothpaste in the bathroom. Magic.

We arrived in Seoul at 5:00am Wednesday and wandered around for a few hours. "Flat Josiah" (pictured below) had a really good time at the Incheon International Airport. He was all over that place.

Our leg from Seoul to Beijing was a quick hour and a half. We arrived around 11:00am and met up with our guide, Chandler. He drove us to the Oriental Culture Hotel where we checked in, secured acrobat tickets after a 20 minute charade match (yes, I was charading acrobats), exchanged some money, and then hit the town.

First stop? WuMart for some bottled water, beer (good for cleansing the system, after all), and Natural and Cool Cucumber potato chips. (Okay, a brief aside in these crazy chips--they actually make your throat cold. Like you just had an Altoid. Freaky.) I love grocery stores in other places. I am always amazed by the variety of smells, flavors, and the collection of unidentifiable stuff. WuMart is apparently not frequented by foreigners much, as we were pretty interesting to the people shopping there. One lady hopped from aisle to aisle, peering around corners to see what we were doing. Hilarious. So, for reference, a bottle of water in our minibar at the hotel is 25 RMB. At WuMart, we got 10 bottles of water, 3 beers (yes, they are sold as individual cans--and have pop tops, at that), our large bag of crazy cold cucumber chips, and some chocolate mushrooms for 26 RMB. (There are approximately 6 RMB to a USD right now.)

After loading Dan's backpack with our goods, we headed out down a busy street toward the Bell Tower. Along the way, we got a fast feel for this place. Cars and bicycles everywhere, laundry hanging out to dry between the trees, bicycle repair men working every few feet, piles of stuff on bikes and the sidewalk waiting for delivery to shops, chattering all around, LAUGHTER, groups of men playing checkers in the most unusual of places--like the seat of a moped--and hutongs (skinny little alleyways formed by collection of traditional courtyard homes) spoking off the main street every which way. It all hums together so vibrantly. This place is really awesome.

We made it down to the Bell Tower and climbed what seemed like a gazillion steep-as-heck steps to get to the top for viewing. The city is HUGE, but the smog impacted the view significantly. I did find myself bothered by the pollution--thankfully not in a respiratory sense--but my eyes burned like crazy and watered for hours. But I adjusted as the day went on and by late afternoon I didn't notice it at all.

After the Bell Tower, we wandered the hutong area surrounding it for hours. These alleyways are a sea of old courtyard houses, most of which are in pretty rough shape. People were all over on these tiny streets--some playing checkers, one getting a haircut while holding a stick of live parakeets, some just shootin' the breeze, some sweeping, some hanging laundry, and some watching us with great interest and discussing us with neighbors. Dan and I both felt a bit like we were invading this private space--like our NorthFace-wearin', camera-totin' selves were like martians who just landed here. (I guess that's not so far from true.) So as much as we wanted to take a million people photos, most of the time we just walked right on past--with a smile, head nod, and 'ni hao'--trying for a second to just be part of their world. (Now I understand why our guide books say a trip to Beijing is not complete without this experience.)

Hutongs have been threatened for years as Beijing's faster-than-the-speed-of-light development plows through these old traditional places in favor of large-scale modern development. Recently, several of these areas have been protected for cultural preservation--HOORAY!

After having been out and about for several hours (and Dan, of course, has 10 bottles of water, 3 beers, crazy cool cucumber chips, and chocolate mushrooms on his back the whole time...note to self, grocery store AFTER sightseeing...) we decided to head back to the hotel to get ready for the acrobat show at Tiandi Theater. (This involved showering without opening our mouths. We succeeded, just in case you were wondering. We also have gotten good at brushing our teeth with bottled water. I have to say, I appreciate good, clean water so much more overtly right now. The things we take for granted...)

At the last minute, we got in touch with our travelmates and they came back to the hotel to get tickets, too. We all piled into 2 taxis and headed to the theater. The show was as amazing as the Chinese acrobatic shows always are--mind-boggling skill. But watching our travelmates' daughter watch the show was as good as the show itself. She leaned forward the whole time with her little head resting on the seatback in front of her, mouth dropped wide open in awe. We had 5th row seats! That is something I so look forward to--watching a child take in the wonders of the word around them.

After the show, we cabbed it back to the hotel. (Cabs are so affordable here; a 15 minute ride from the theater for 3 adults was less than $2 USD.) I wanted to update the blog last night before going to bed, but the 48 hours without uninterrupted sleep finally caught up with me and I crashed on the hard-as-plywood bed. (I had heard about the beds here, but man, these beds are HARD.)

Today we're heading to the Summer Palace and the Beijing Zoo. (I get to see panda bears today!) Enjoy a few images from today...just think, in another 3 days, these posts will be pictures of K! HOORAY!