Day 2 in Beijing.
Trip Start
Sep 12, 2008
1
2
20
Trip End
Oct 03, 2008
Beijing,
China
Sunday, September 14, 2008
I arrived in Beijing yesterday afternoon and met a senior couple who are on the tour with me. Can you believe they are from Langley?? I tried to see the Olympic venues, but you can't get even within viewing distance if you don't have an event ticket. Oh well... It did teach me how to ride the Beijing Subway system, which is quite good and clean.
Today the couple and I went to the Forbidden City and did a tour around it. It is very hot and humid here. The forbidden City has had some upkeep for the Olympics, but you can tell where they haven't touched it. It has suffered from erosion and pollution as you can see on the sculpture and paintings on the buildings. But what you really notice is the lack of trees, until you get into the Imperial Garden. This is because they were protecting themselves. No one can hide behind trees and plants when there aren't any! It is also a long weekend here, with Monday being a holiday day off for the Moon festival, so there are tons of people out and about. It was especially crowded today apparently, due to both the Paralympics still being on and the holiday.
Anyways, the flight as uneventful and I got around 5 hours of sleep. I was in business class so I had a nice bed that they now have. I highly recommend them. I also had a good night's sleep last night so I am mostly fully adjusted to the time zone here. That usually happens when I go away anyways... It is the return to Vancouver that kills me with the jetlag.
So that is it for now... we meet up with the rest of the tour group today and then off for dinner. The full tour itself starts in earnest tomorrow morning.
