Beijing!

Thursday, May 13th

We spent the day flying to Beijing from Hong Kong. The flight was 3 hours long but our plane left about 40 minutes late which delayed our arrival.

After we checked into our flight in Hong Kong we were directed to our gate. Since Hong Kong is small one would assume that the airport is too. Not a chance. We starting walking to our gate and had to take a train. When we got off of the train we immediately got onto another train. Then we took an elevator up to the next floor where we walked some more then we took an elevator down and walked some more. We even rode the walking escalators before we found our gate. I think I know why so many Asian people are thin!

The flight itself was great and we were greeted at the airport in Beijing by out guide, Cindy. She is a lovely lady who knows a lot about China and shared great stories with us on the way to our hotel.

We are staying at a beautiful hotel in downtown Beijing named, The Grand Hotel. It is indeed, Grand. We have a huge room with a beautiful view of downtown Beijing. We walked to a mall tonight for some dinner. When we left a mother and her son approached Brian begging for money. Before I knew what was happening he gave her some money. Instantly another mother and young son walked up to us doing the same thing as the first lady. This time he resisted and they continued to follow us and even grabbed Daniel's stroller. They finally gave up and we learned a quick lesson. It was really sad.

Tomorrow we are meeting up bright and early to go to the Great Wall and the Summer Palace.