Beijing Jingang Airport Hotel

... position does not seem to indicate that you are first, someone will generally point out, "go ahead" or “you were first.” That does not seem to be the case here! It’s interesting to see what happens when someone does cut in front of you in line, as the Americans in our group tend to express hostility and outrage. The Chinese in line, however, take it in stride and seem perfectly calm.

When we had already passed through ...

... either. Any way you turn it, this sightseeing business was a thing that seemed to burn a hole in my stomach pretty fast. So we swivelled on our heels and headed back south. Of course, lunch had yet to be earned. It didn't come that easy. In order to qualify for it, we had to clear one or two more hurdles. One called Qiánmén, for example. Or Front Gate, literally. It too was built a long time ago, in 1419, and reaching up to 42 metres in height, it is still the tallest among all of ...

... is - this is mandatory and without such knowledge you will not be allowed to drive. It is suggested you obey the instructions of police officers (Confucius say that it is ill advised to disobey people with guns). Lights and indicators are optional and do not need to be used for the obvious purposes (lights are totally optional on bikes, mopeds and the like). It is suggested that occasionally we might like to right hand ...

... for wine and on returning to China, he starts the Changyu Winery near Yantai. It went on to win various international wine awards and has been running for over a 100 years becoming the largest winemaker in China. After this, we head upstair yet again to a sumptuous dining hall. It is decorated in classical French style and I am given a menu to select the wines I would like to taste. However I am soon shocked to see that I would be charged for each glass and the ...

... and beyond and its loudly trumpeted anti-pollution measures (as well as rumored urban-mythical "weather control machines"), the last month has seen mostly rainy, smog-ridden, humid, phlegm colored days and starless nights, though Sunday night a group of us leaving a goodbye party looked up and gaped at a stunning sight. A star! Two stars! Well, maybe they were planets or special Chinese star simulator satellites orbiting for fhe pending games, nonetheless it was a welcome ...

... that is like a replica of the USA's Hollywood Walk of Fame. There are a number of stars in the ground with a famous person's hand prints and foot prints (if available) and their signature. The walkway here was only about 2-3 blocks long. I only knew two names on the walkway. Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. Those also seem to be the most popular for photos. China is third in the world for movie productions ...

Today we had our buffet breakfast in the hotel and then we got on the subway and got a taxi to the summer palace. It cost 60 yuan to get in (about 4 pounds.) Inside were palace buildings surrounded by beautiful gardens and ponds with lilly pads. The summer palace was originally built for emporers so they could get away from the summer heat in the forbidden city. We saw chinese ladys singing and dancing to music in one of the buildings around the pond. We climbed up ...

... we took some great shots which you can see below. To see the wall sneaking away over hundreds of hills and the thought of how long this wall is makes you believe in the "impossible" - breath taking really! puhhh - What a relieve when we reached Simatai. The best of all was that we didnt have to walk down into the valley - we took a toboggan down over a river into the valley where a boat was waiting for us to bring us to the next village. What a day ...

... with Olympic events on them. The mascot is a Power-Puff Girl looking thing, sort of humanlike but looking a bit like a panda, and on each shot glass it was playing a different sport. Classy, the only Olympic Games paraphernalia I bought was shot glasses. Again, oh, well. Our next stop after the factory was a visit to the Ming Tombs, which are actually spread out over miles and miles of land, so we just went to one area, and it was absolutely stunning. We had to ...

... lined park walks. One group had combined the graceful elegance of Tai-chi with a bat and ball game and dreadful Chinese pop music, an experience made more perplexing by the fact that the rallying martial artists were all over the age of 60. Their dexterity was trumped, though, by the hackeysack-playing septogenarians whose deft touches and Brazilian beach tricks had me staring in complete disbelief. Another distinctly Chinese and also rather disturbing ...