Holiday Inn Central Plaza Beijing

Looking back at Beijing... Greetings from Tibet! I am writing to you from the "Roof of the World" at 3600 metres above sea level! My heart is racing, I am breathing rapidly, my eyes are blood shot and I am tanked on Diamox and mineral water, but so far, so good! We arrived in Beijing on Tuesday afternoon. What can I say about Beijing? 14 million people, unbelievable urban sprawl, but surprisingly still a great deal of trees and green spaces. On our first day in Beijing, Michael and I decided ...

How better to experience a holiday that's foreign to you, than to dive in with both feet into a real local celebration. I had gone on several websites regarding Beijing events for the Spring Festival, and each talked about "Temple Fairs." It also should be noted that almost all the sites also made fun of the Temple Fairs for being very cheesy and ridiculous. Just my kinda a scene, baby. Knowing that my roommate (I'm sorry, roommates) would be sleeping most of the day away due to their jetlagg...

There is something about the Asians and their electronics. I have had the great thrill of spending an evening in Tokyo's electronic districts, seeing all the new amazing gadgets and electronic toys they offer, things that don't make it to the states until year's later. This was many years ago, at least 6 years or so, and I remember they had cell phones that could record DV quality video on to SD cards, which I'm not sure has made it to us yet...(I have to admit I still hang to my 1992 cell ph...

Arrival in China was our first really good travel story - Dawn, I will try to compete with your hysterical summaries here! There was a problem with Skippy's flight on China Southern - so he only got one boarding pass. He was told by the gate agent in Vietnam to go to the transfer desk in Guangzhou, China. When we got off the flight there was a ticket agent waiting in the jetway with a sign with his name in big letters. She provided a personal escort through immigration, customs and over to th...

Today was heavy on the sights in Beijing. We started at Tian'anmen Square. The size of the place is amazing - and the buildings alongside that were built in record time are impressive too. The line of folks waiting to visit Mao's tomb is forever long. And the best moment was when we stopped to take a picture of the People's Hero Monument in the middle. Do was taking a picture of Skippy and I - when Skippy walked away I was loitering for a minute. A Chinese man was walking by and as he saw Ski...

Today was the day we had been waiting for in Beijing. We are headed for the Great Wall of China! But first we had to see a bunch of other silly things - the bad part of being on a formal tour. So we saw the Sacred Path on the way to Ming's Tomb - which was outdoor so pretty but chilly. We visited Ming's Tomb which was rather bleak and uninteresting, but very popular. We had to stop at the jade store - we were the ONLY people in the store - so it was hard to hide from the sales guy after recei...

So today we're up early and off to a few last minute sights before we leave Beijing. However, first was breakfast - we've decided this hotel has the best thus far on the trip. Second event was the fact that Mr Liu # 1 is gone - his mother-in-law was in the hospital. So he was replaced by Mr Liu # 2. Mr. Liu # 1 was a 30 year Red Army veteran who drove his mini-van very conservatively. Mr Liu # 2 is a much more casual guy (picture a chain smoker wearing a leather jacket driving a beat up town ...