30/11/2015 by photosbyhank

From Hutong to tennis

It wasn’t raining on October 5th but it certainly wasn’t a bright sunny day by any means. Air quality wasn’t what I would call good as it had a white, hazy look to everything in the distance.

All I knew of today’s plan was were going to The China Open to watch tennis with tickets Lucille and Curtis had acquired from a manager at Element Fresh. It pays to be regulars.

We headed to the subway as a usual start to adventure.

Seems pretty quiet this morning

We were heading to the Bell and Drum Towers via the Yu’er Hutong. In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences.

Just a little busier than the subway.

Not as many interesting things to see here as 798 but some stuff for sure.

Either that is a scrawny Smurf or a big blue rat.

Old meet new

Map makes it look so organized

Man selling paper sculptors

The Bell tower came into view and I realized that meant there would be some stairs.

Continue reading →

29/11/2015 by photosbyhank

Temples and kungfu fighting

It wasn’t a totally sunny day on Sunday, October 4th but it looked like it might get there.

I was still in search of a gift for Lynda so I was pretty excited to go check out Tea Street.

We left the apartment to go look for a cab. Lucille and Curtis had told me it was almost impossible to get a cab in Beijing. We walked down their block and out to the main road where there is usually lots of taxis. After walking about 20 feet we saw a cab coming and flagged it down. The lady driving stopped right away and she knew the area we wanted to go to. Didn’t seem to hard to me but I was just a tourist.

It was about 25 minutes by cab to Tea Street so it would of been a long ride by bus/subway.

Tea Street is a long street lined with stores and stalls that sell everything tea. Tea sets, loose leaf tea, tea tables and other stuff that I have no idea what it was for.

At the start of the street it has plenty of modern stores, some of them were pretty fancy. I found a couple of tea sets that I liked but I wasn’t too happy with the prices so I thought I’d keep looking.

As we walked along the street the shops got smaller and older. Soon we came to the original area of the Teajoymarket area.

We checked out a few shops in the older area and I found a set that to me said “China” without actually saying “China.” When I asked how much it was I was surprised how little it was so I never even tried to barter. I was very happy with the price he gave me.

We went back to another store that I’d seen the same set in earlier and asked how much but they realized I already had a the same one and wouldn’t give me a price other than saying, “About what you paid.”

So I had what I came for, now I had a bag to carry around. Oh well, mission accomplished as far as I was concerned.

As we were leaving Tea Street to head over to the Lama Temple I spotted this.

I’m not a Lamborghini fan but a Huracan is not something I see everyday.

I had to go to China to try Papa John’s Pizza. Wasn’t bad pizza. I’ll have to try it at home one of these days to see if it’s consistent.

After lunch we went to the Lama Temple.

It was a fairly busy place but I never did see any lamas.

Lucille carrying my tea set

They do burn a lot of incense

That’s a lot of Buddhas

A really really big Buddha

After checking out some of the Buddhas we went back outside where it was less crowded.

Just resting

Having lunch

Rosie and I at the Lama Temple

Prayer wheel

That’s a lot of incense

Leaving the Lama Temple

Token bus shot for Steve Parkin

It was temple day as we left the Lama Temple to go to The Temple of Heaven

A bit of a crowd

Big lineup, must be important

I’m not sure what the line was for

Time for a rest

Posers

Poser

Just a few people

At least Curtis has my tea set

The Temple of Heaven was a pretty interesting site in a rather large site with plenty of things to see. We started making our way out and walked through a nice park area.

Curtis is just a blur

This guy was dancing to his own tune

He was enjoying himself

From The Temple of Heaven we went to the Hongqiao Pearl Market to see about some more shopping. It was a nice big indoor market but nothing jumped out at us to buy.

Directly behind the Pearl Market is another market that Lucille wanted to check out as she had heard a lot about the Knock Knock Store. It is a store just for foreigners. You approach an unmarked door and knock on it for entry. We never even got to knock as they have video surveillance and just opened the door when we got to it.

They had quite a bit of stuff there ranging from purses to shoes and clothes to sunglasses – which we all bought – to watches. Lucille replaced the sunglasses she lost at the Great Wall and I haven’t had any sunglasses in years but at least I hadn’t lost any down a squat toilet like she did. I really liked the look of the watches but didn’t bother to ask the prices. I don’t know what a Breitling knock off cost there but I probably still couldn’t afford it.

Hungry from all our shopping and sightseeing, we headed to. Wait for it….

McDonalds. I know, I know. I don’t even eat at McDonalds at home but unlike Curtis, I just had fries and a drink. Fries tasted pretty much like the fries at home.

We were ready to go to next stop – The Legend of Kungfu show at the Red Theatre.

We had seats in the 4th row and unlike the acrobat show, cameras were allowed as long as there was no flash used. I was good with that.

It was a good show and interesting enough, in English with the Chinese shown on the screen about the stage.

Excellent show over it was time to go home. 16, 424 steps today. Didn’t beat yesterday but seems to be consistent now.

26/11/2015 by photosbyhank

The Great Wall and back

As was getting typical for me, I was up at dawn again. It looks like a nice day out so I might as well do something productive before we go see the Great Wall.

The view from my window

My room faced north so I don’t really get to see the sunrise so I went to the balcony to see how it looked from there.

Sunrise Panorama1

No colour to be seen except for the glow on some of the buildings.

Today we were going to see one of the 7 wonders of the world – The Great Wall of China. Well, part of it anyway as it’s more than one wall and covers over 5500 miles. We are going to the Mutianyu section which is considered to be one of the most beautiful sections and as such it has been fully restored.

Tony, our driver, picked us up at 7:30 am and we were soon on the highway. Traffic flowed pretty good until we hit the toll booths. It was interesting watching the traffic move in and out of their lanes going on to and off of the shoulders trying to get ahead. It’s not like they put booths on the shoulders so they had to fight their way back in line. It took us longer to get through the toll area than it took to drive the miles to get there.

Tony dropped us off and we walked in to the ticket area.

A ticket for admission, one for the chair lift and one for the toboggan ride back down.

Once you leave the ticket area you board a bus and it drives you up to a long flat area that is full of shops and restaurants.

Panda’s and sheep are friends?

Once you navigate past all the shops and vendors it’s a short walk up the hill to the chairlift.

It’s a long way up.

There was no waiting at the chairlift so we were on our way in no time.

Nice view on the way up.

Up, up and away

After about a 5 minute ride we arrived at the base of the wall. Just a couple sets of stairs – again with the stairs – and we are standing on top of The Great Wall.

We are lucky enough to have a good air day and you can see for a long way.

I never in my whole life expected to be able to do something like this. It was awesome to see.

Selfies over, we walked up to the first lookout.

View from the top

There goes the tour

The Moffat’s

We could walk along the wall if we wanted but it involved a lot of climbing and none of us wanted to do that. So it was time to hit the toboggan run.

Whee!

Zoom zoom!

It’s a lot harder to lean back on the toboggan and take pictures than you’d think. Having to hold the brake handle to keep going didn’t help.

The fun over, we got back on the bus and headed down to the exit.

The guy in the yellow hat’s job is to hand out flyers.

He’d doing a good job. When Lucille got close to him, he started giving her one, looked at her, the pulled it back. I think we were racially profiled.

As we waited for Tony to pick us up I grabbed a couple of shots near the entrance.

The flowers still looked pretty good for the time of year.

Great Wall Panorama1

It’s not even noon when we get back to the apartment. Took an hour and a half to get to the wall but only an hour to get home.

Must be time for lunch so we head over to the mall and Element Fresh.

After lunch we went to one of the places I had on my list of places to go see – 798 Art Zone.

I had read that 798 was full of art galleries, shops and restaurants so I really wanted to go see it.

Another selfie

When pigs fly

Some of the children’s art

I knew we were in the right place

There were a lot of booths and activities for kids along the street.

I took this because I know Samantha Burns would be so jealous

They were sure having fun

Looks like so much fun

She is really in to it

I found some grafitti but a little late for my photo club assignment.

Just down the street we saw some more painting going on.

A bit further along the same street is a shop that actually sells grafitti supplies. It was pretty cool.

There was so much neat stuff to see that it was hard to walk as I stopped to take pictures so often.

The whole area is a former industrial area and the mix of old and new is intriguing.

Everywhere you looked you’d see something different.

Painting his pottery

Making pomegranate juice.

Very focused on her work

Even more things to see as we walked around.

Gum?

A fixer upper

Good use of a phone booth

As we moved into a different area stuff just got weirder.

Close-up of the moon.

I thought it would be bigger.

Planes and balls.

I’m not even sure what that is all about.

Moon creatures?

Red, white and blue cup mounds?

We had been in 798 for about 3 hours and started to make our way out. I could of spent a couple of days there but Lucille did have a list of things for us to see and do.

I thought I’d shoot some “normal” stuff.

Metal fence

A row of valves is normal. Right?

And some not so normal stuff.

It’s a…..?

He doesn’t look that impressed considering he’s riding a dinosaur.

As we approached one of the gates I noticed a familiar sign on a building in the distance.

Pit stop

Biggest one wins?

Rosie and I on the way out of 798

Leaving 798

The 798 Arts District is huge and if I had 2 full days there I would not be able to see everything. It flows into the 751 area that appears to have more of the same kind of stuff as well as fashion shops.

This was the best day so far on my trip. I was in awe at The Great Wall and in total wonderment at 798.

As we made our way to find supper we saw a small traffic jam.

Not sure what was causing the hold up but was glad we weren’t going in that direction.

Just a few cranes.

As we got near Peter’s Tex-Mex I saw something that reminded me of my friend Steve Parkin and I just had to take a couple of photos.

Short bus

It was around 6:00 pm when we got to Peter’s but it was feeling like a long day. The food was ok and for a Tex-Mex place the strawberry margarita wasn’t great as they had run out of strawberries and substituted mango instead.

We had a toast to my dad on what would of been his 75th birthday. He would of never gone to China in a million years but I was very happy to be able to go.

Considering all the things we saw today 16635 steps seemed low but we did take a car ride for a good chunk of it. Tomorrow’s another day maybe we’ll do better.

26/11/2015 by photosbyhank

Shopping and a show

Friday, October 2nd dawned as another nice sunny day.

We headed out looking for adventure.

I love the bicycle lock on the back tire.

I was told the plan was to go to the dirt market which is properly called Panjiayuan Market. Apparently it’s been called the dirt market as cheaper goods can usually be had there.

I was on the hunt for something nice for Lynda. I had a tea set in mind and thought I’d have luck finding one for her. I was wrong.

I did see beads; lots and lots of beads. Any colour or size of bead you could imagine or dream of and you’ll find it here. Bracelets were abundant as well. I really would of liked to buy one for Lynda but without her there to make sure I got the right size it was pointless.

There was also a noticeable lack of vendors in some isles.

It is quite a big market and there was a lot of stuff to see but just not what I was hoping to find.

Apparently it’s a popular market.

Disappointed with my shopping efforts we left in search of a lunch spot.

Along the way I spotted a few scooters.

We went to Home Plate BBQ for some American burgers. The burgers weren’t bad, not the best I’ve ever had by a long shot, but pretty good for Beijing.

One of the nice things about being in a restaurant in China is you are never pressured to finish up and leave. No matter if the place if busy or not, no one ever comes and brings you a bill or hovers nearby. When you are ready you have to wave them over to pay. Even paying the bill doesn’t mean you have to get out. This worked out nicely as we had some time to kill before we were going to go a late afternoon acrobat show at the Choayang Theatre.

We still had some time when we got to the theatre.

Not our tour so we wandered around a bit more to kill some time so I looked for some interesting building to shoot.

The tallest building in Beijing at 88 stories

On the way back to the theatre I saw some guys installing lights along a fence. They looked to be welded steel cages or aluminum and they were putting them up by hand. I missed the best action as I couldn’t get a good angel to shoot from, but it was impressive to watch them lift it into place.

It was a nice little theatre with balconies but unfortunately no photos were allowed during the performance. We had 4th row seats and I know I would of been able to get some nice shots. The acrobats are very good and it is an impressive show that they put on. It is over in what feels like no time at all.

Supper time found us at Ganges Indian Restaurant over near where Lucille and Curtis live. It was good food but I’ve never been in an Indian restaurant where rice didn’t come with the entree.

Feeling full it was safe to stop at April Gourmet for some groceries. Where they come up with the names of things is beyond me. I found it hot in the store so I wandered out on to the sidewalk and grabbed a shot of the building.

That was the end of our day. Only 10596 steps today.

24/11/2015 by photosbyhank

Meeting a foreigner in Beijing

October the first dawned as a bright and sunny day. It was also the start of the Golden Week Holiday in China. Lucille had told me that Beijing would empty out as a lot of people went home for that week. We were going to test this theory with our first stop of the day.

We headed to the subway to go to The Forbidden City.

We barely got out of the subway station and we were immediately in a throng of people shuffling along like penguins towards a security checkpoint. Being Canadian I soon had a few people between Lucille, Curtis and myself. Since I could see them I wasn’t too concerned. Soon I noticed them talking to another foreigner. They were far enough ahead that I couldn’t hear what was being said so I just kept shuffling along with the masses.

They cleared security first and waited for me. The line branched off with the left side heading to Tiananmen Square so the crowds seemed manageable all of a sudden.

We had to clear security again when we entered The Forbidden City and there was a sign saying they were limiting entrance to 80 000 people that day. Oh, eighty thousand, is that all?

Turns out the fellow they were talking too had just arrived from Belgium, dropped his luggage at his hostel and headed out to see Beijing. He wondered if he could tag along with us for a while. We had no objections so the 4 of us started to wander inside the gates.

Construction started in 1406 and took 14 years to build the Forbidden City with over 1 million workers used in it’s construction. It is approximately 3/5ths of a mile by 1/2 mile inside a 28.3 foot tall wall and is surrounded by a moat that is 20 feet deep and 171 feet wide.

To say there is a crap ton of stuff to see there is an understatement and I don’t mean all the people either.

The blue sky was so nice to see but it made for some nasty contrast for photo taking, but you do what you have to do.

As you can see, there were a few people in the place.

Forbidden City Panorama2

It was an area that made for panoramas.

Forbidden City_Panorama

We walked towards the east gate and found an area that was almost empty of people. It was an area with buildings full of pottery.

Tranquility break over we headed back to the main area to work our way north.

Count the tour groups

The building were quite crowded as were the narrow passageways between building so we headed for a large open area.

Rosie taking in the sights

Forbidden City_Panorama3

We were all getting hungry so we started making our way out.

We wandered around looking for food and finally decided to try Niuge Jiaozi Dumplings. We each picked a flavour and shared 4 fabulous dumplings. It must of looked funny to see 4 left handed foreigners using chop stick. Curtis looks like a pro with them, Lucille looked like she knew what she was doing, our yet unnamed Belgium looked proficient with them and I just sucked using them. It was only my 2nd day mind you. I am liking dumplings a lot though. Our new friend was so happy to get to see stuff that he probably wouldn’t of gotten to that he bought us all lunch.

As we wandered over to Wangfujing Street on our way down to Bug Street we saw a few interesting things.

Just a small load

A rather large Nikon 1

Not far from Bug Street is an interesting church.

Lucille, Curtis and I still have no idea what his name is.

We arrived at Bug Street and waded into the chaos.

Does he look familiar? Anyone?

Looking west

Looking east

We escaped the crush of “Snack Street” without any of us trying any bugs or other disgusting items. Our Belgium friend was starting to slow down but agreed to come with us to check out the Silk Market.

A bookstore full of books I can’t read

I took this for my niece Lisa. I’m sure they are all real

Lots of me carry the beads around

It was my first shopping market and I found something that I thought Lynda would like. I negotiated a price that I was happy with for the family ball that I found for her. Afterwards, Lucille told me I probably could of gotten it for less. I figured you can’t put a price on love, but I’ll know next time.

The Belgium was looking pretty tired at this point so we said our goodbyes (without ever learning his name) and he headed back to his hostel to get some sleep.

We started down the road for Ritan Park.

They spelt Lynda’s name wrong

Small, even by Chinese standards

Free hopscotch?

It is a decent sized park with a nice water feature.

I even found a panda

As we headed towards an exit gate we saw people dancing in the park. Lucille tells me it is a pretty common thing to see and they aren’t always in a park.

On the way to Parkview Green Mall I saw what I thought would be a perfect business opportunity for my brother Kevin.

Parkview Green Mall is a fairly new , modern building with an interesting mix of stores and architecture.

That’s a big flower

Unusual cows

Interesting use of string

The world’s largest 3D printed structure was on display in the mall.

Punch buggy yellow! No return!

There were other interesting displays in the mall.

Since we weren’t shopping we headed back outside.

It was time to start thinking about supper so we ended up at Luga’s Mexican Restaurant. I would rate both their food and margaritas as average. I know my sister doesn’t like Chinese food much but so far that has been the best food here. Ex-pat food places have been pretty mediocre all in all.

No trumpets allowed?

That put an end to a busy day. We only walked 21,690 steps. Seems like it should of been more with all the things we saw today.

There is always tomorrow.

23/11/2015 by photosbyhank

Birthday duck

September 30th dawned a bit brighter than the day before and I dawned a bit older than the day before. I don’t feel any older, maybe that comes later.

The plan today is to go meet Curtis for lunch and get some dumplings then do a walk around Tsinghau University as that is where his office is located and go for some Beijing Duck for supper.

It’s my first look a the subway system in Beijing. Doesn’t seem as bad as I’ve been told. It is a bit of a ride to get there with the transfers, but not so bad all in all.

We trust Curtis to order the dumplings and he made good choices. They are tasty and I especially like the hot sauce on them.

Lunch is done and it’s time to go for our walk around the University.

Tsinghua University was established in 1911 and is now one of the top 2 universities in China along with Peking University. Apparently it has been called the MIT of China. I don’t know what the grounds of MIT look like, but I doubt they are as peaceful.

Long common area

Interesting theatre building

As we strolled along it became evident that the university grounds were huge. We went in search of a gate that is historical.

It didn’t look like much to me but it seems popular.

Interesting signs they have there

The more we walked around the more places we found that Lucille will have to go back to in the spring when the flowers are out.

This will be awesome when the water lilies bloom in the spring

He was doing a great job

I love it here. It was so quiet

Typical Chinese bridge

The building was a bit ho-hum but I liked the fountain.

We found a few old building as we wandered.

Found this old guy just standing around. He didn’t have much to say though.

As we continued our walk we found a cool tower.

I liked the stairway

We started making our way back towards Curtis’s work and I found my book shelf. Well, the books anyway, I think the shelf was broken.

We had to pass the famous gate on the way out and it had even more people hanging around it.

It was time for Curtis to head back into work so Lucille and I went back to the apartment to wait till supper time.

It was raining when we left to go to Duck de Chine at 1949 The Hidden City. I had cooked duck once back in my hunting days and it was disgusting. Granted I really didn’t have the right pan to cook it in. I figured while in Beijing I should keep an open mind and try ~~Peking Duck~~ Beijing Duck. I had asked that we could find a place where the duck wasn’t too greasy and Curtis chose wisely.

Not only was the duck not greasy it was tasty and the kung pao chicken we ordered was fabulous. I loved the ambiance of the restaurant as well. A gong is rung and the duck is carved right at your table. It was too bad that it was dark and pouring rain when we got there as I would of liked to explore that area more. Happy birthday to me.

The rain was pretty much done as we headed home. We stopped for a piece of chocolate cake near their apartment. It looked like chocolate cake, but the lack of sugar that seems prevalent in China made for a cake like I’ve never had. It was ok, not really good and not really bad, it was interesting.

We did 19443 steps today. The plan is to go to the Forbidden City tomorrow so I see more walking in my future.

22/11/2015 by photosbyhank

Rainy day in Beijing

I’m awake and it’s still dark. Hmmm, wonder what time it is? 1:00 am. Great! Back to bed, and I actually fall back to sleep. Four am and I’m awake for the day now. Probably a bit early to actually get up so I read for a while before I decide to get my camera out.

Looking out the living room window at 6:00 am at a rainy day.

Other than having to go to the police station to check in, I have no idea what we are going to see today.

After breakfast it’s still raining as Lucille and I head out to catch the bus to the police station. Luckily Lucille has all the paperwork with her and Curtis’s information and address as there doesn’t seem to be much English understood there.

It was still raining when we left the police station and headed to the Lady Street Market. Luckily it is an indoor market. Most of the market is downstairs and we wandered around places Lucille had never seen.

More umbrellas than people. Maybe China isn’t so crowded after all.

Nothing jumped out at me to buy for Lynda so we headed to the German Bakery for lunch. Good tomato soup and a basket of fabulous bread for 35 RMB (about $7.00 Canadian).

Just down the street from the bakery is Solana Mall. It looks fairly new and has a lot of upscale shops and a bunch of restaurants in an indoor/outdoor mix.

After our little excursion it was time to go meet Curtis for supper. We went to a place called Element Fresh in the mall near their place. They go there quite often and it has a pretty big menu. I thought it was still pretty average but I was starting to get pretty tired by this time.

By the time we made it back to the apartment we had done 12699 steps according to Lucille’s fitness band.

I tried to make it to 10 o’clock before I went to bed so I could try to sleep till a regular wake up time but I didn’t make it.

21/11/2015 by photosbyhank

Up, up and away

Damn, 2:30 am comes awfully early when you’ve had less than 4 hours sleep. But that was the price to be paid to be at the Red Deer Airport for a 5:40 am flight. I might of slept more if I wasn’t excited about my flight. It’s Sunday, September 27th and it’s the start of my Beijing, China odyssey .

When I pondered where to go for my yearly getaway, I asked for suggestions on FaceBook and got a bunch of answers but nothing wowed me. My sister, Lucille Moffat, suggested visiting her in Beijing. I knew I could not afford to do that so I dismissed it out of hand. Fast forward a couple of months and she messaged me to say that her husband, Curtis, would use his Airmiles if I wanted to go see them. The idea excited me but I also felt guilty about going that far with out Lynda and I didn’t want Curtis to waste his miles on me. She pointed out the “use em or lose em” argument and I changed my tune soon enough.

I never in a million years thought I’d be spending my 50th birthday so far away from home. I mean, I go away every year for my birthday but it’s usually just a road trip somewhere. It would be about 13 hours of flying time to get there but the stops along the way were going to make it a long day. The 14 hour time difference would make it a very loooooooooooong day.

Lynda and I arrived at the airport around 4:30 am and began the “hurry up and wait” portion of the trip. We sat around for about 1/2 an hour before I had to check in and clear security.

I felt very safe with a stalker just outside the glass.

It was time to board the Beechcraft 1900D, an 18 seat twin prop beauty for the 40 minute flight to Calgary. Everybody gets a window seat on this flight. Soon the engines were fired up and after quite a long time and deicing it was time to taxi out to the runway. We sat on the apron for a while, turned around, sat longer and taxied back to the terminal. Apparently one of the back up systems for night flying was malfunctioning. After we deplaned, we were told that we could either wait for a new system to come, or just take off once it got lighter out. Since I had some time before my connecting flight it made no difference to me, but quite a few of the other passengers were a bit antsy about waiting too long.

It’s approaching 7:00 am when we get to re-board the aircraft. It was a lot quicker starting up and leaving this time. Sunrise was very nice, even thorough the crappy airplane window.

Sunrise was the nicest part of that flight as it was the roughest ride I’ve ever had on an airplane and I’ve been up in a 2 seat Cessna 150. Once we landed in Calgary I stayed out of the way as people ran to make their connection to parts beyond.

Because I wouldn’t have to clear customs until Beijing, I had no reason to wait for my suitcase like the lady in Red Deer told me. A nice fellow in Calgary pointed that out to me and another guy flying overseas. Makes sense when you think about it, but not being an international traveler, I hadn’t thought about that.

After only about an hour’s wait it was time to board the Embraer E190. I had a window seat again and was soon watching the ground get farther and farther away. There was mixed clouds over the mountains and I was suddenly sleepy. I couldn’t sleep and never took my camera out so I stared glassy eyed out the window. Just 8 minutes after we left Calgary we landed in Vancouver according to the clock. Ah, Pacific time.

I had a long enough layover to have some lunch, walk around the airport and read my book before the 11 hour flight. I was pretty excited about having another window seat on the Boeing 777. That soon changed when I boarded and realized I had the bulkhead instead of a window. The seats ahead of me had 2 windows that they pulled the blinds down on as soon as we were airborne. The only good thing about my location was I had the only occupied seat in my row so as least I could stretch. I watched movies, read my book and listened to music and tried to get some sleep along the way. I napped on and off for about 2 hours and felt a bit groggy by the time we landed in Beijing at about 2:30 pm on Tuesday, September 28th. It was a day and a half since I got up. This might be harder than I thought.

After we deplaned we walked quite a ways to the immigration line. The line moved pretty fast and I was through in less than 1/2 an hour. I don’t want to say that the Beijing airport is big, but it was the first time I had to take a train to go get to my luggage and customs.

Having nothing to declare, customs was done in about 5 minutes. I went out into the masses of people and found my sister found me quickly enough.

We walked out to wait for the car they hired to come and get me. Soon I was introduced to Beijing traffic. It was interesting to say the least.

We got to Lucille and Curtis’s apartment and waited for Curtis to get home from work. I was so tired but realized if I could stay up till night time I should get used to the time change a lot sooner.

Thankfully, it wasn’t long till we could go out for supper. We walked over to Tiago Italian Restaurant and I honestly don’t remember which way we had to go to get there. All I really recall is I had spaghetti and meat sauce and the sauce was really greasy and not all that flavourful. This was my introduction to the very average food I would have over the next 2 weeks.

I can’t remember the walk back to the apartment, all I know is I went to bed at 8:00 o’clock to get ready for what tomorrow will bring.

Hank's Blog – Musings of a Wandering Mind

Month: November 2015

From Hutong to tennis

Temples and kungfu fighting

The Great Wall and back

Shopping and a show

Meeting a foreigner in Beijing

Birthday duck

Rainy day in Beijing

Up, up and away