To the frozen wasteland of Beijing

Trip Start Sep 17, 2007
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Trip End Oct 08, 2008


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Friday, January 18, 2008

So after 4 months of perfect planning (thank you very much) and pretty great weather, we arrived in Beijing. Now winter had to arrive at some point, and the cost of being in India and Nepal during the cool winter months meant we had to be in China during the freezing winter months. I think it was a good trade.

Beijing doesn't have great weather in any case. In winter it's tundra and in summer it bakes. Nevertheless, the pilot's announcement as we landed was not encouraging.

"Welcome to Beijing. The temperature is -3 degrees celsius."

Don't worry folks. We were prepared with the cold weather gear we had picked up in Nepal. We stepped out of the plane into the chill and looked up into the smoggy sky. Visibility was terrible, and even the sun couldn't get through. Beijing is one of the most polluted cities in the world and smog often settles over the city, especially in the winter months when everyone burns coal to keep warm.

We did manage to get a bus into the center of the city and then link up with the metro to get near our hotel. Then we walked around in the cold until we were numb. Finally we did find our hotel though. It would turn out to be our home for...quite a while.

~Travis
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