Fly to Beijing - Aug 24, 2006 - Dongling, Hebei, China

Our first rain (actually drizzle) when we left Xian this morning. Airline flight early this morning to Beijing - everything went like clockwork; no problems.

Staying at the Xiaoxiang Hotel Beijing - our nicest hotel so far (except for having the laptop in our rooms in Luoyang!

Judy, Rick and I opted out on another Buddhist Temple tour for this afternoon and went shopping. I've got to find a piece of luggage to get all my "stuff" home. Nice nap this afternoon. We seem to be in an older and dirtier area of Beijing. The internet cafe was gross - smoke so thick I could hardly breathe - probably 50 computers and all teenagers - 2yuan for 15 minutes.

Beijing is huge; it's the capital of China and the population is 14 million; it's gearing up for the Summer Olympics here in 2008. From what we saw coming in from the airport, the city is already built and doesn't have the cranes and huge skyscrapers still being built as does Shanghai and Louyang.

Our new guide is Andy and tomorow we leave at 8am to visit the Forbidden City and Imperial Palace.

There's one English speaking TV channel in China - CCTV9, not much on it though - a little world news, mostly Chinese documentaries about the Tibet train tunnel, WW2's Nanjing Massacre, Chinese boys studying in the US in 1920's.

FYI: Peony is Chinese flower, Pomegrante is the fruit, lots of Crepe Myrtles, cypress, mulberry (silk worm). Mao red books for sale everywhere. Chinese government is ruled by socialism with Chinese influence. Entrepeneurship has begun in China. People are now allowed to own their own businesses but we're told that government-owned businesses are more trustworthy. I think we found that in the markets - everything sold was a knockoff.

Another 10 course Chinese dinner tonight at a local spot by the hotel - it's getting more expensive - 36yuan - $4.50!!