Chinese New Year Week 2009 Day 5

Wednesday. Jamie and I took Gary and Kathy to Wal-Mart this morning which can be quite a trip in and of itself. They were able to see the lived turtles, fish, and frogs for sale as well as frozen whole chicken feet and hog feet and fresh squid. The smell of Wal-Mart leaves little to be desired.

Once we returned from our Wal-Mart trip, we packed up and were ready to head to the airport for our flight to Beijing. We decided to take the bus to the airport because it is about 10 times cheaper than a cab. The bus takes about an hour but is very efficient if you have the time. We boarded and flew to Beijing with no problems although we didn't get to sit together on the flight. It was packed, but a very smooth flight of about 3 hours.

We were met immediately in Beijing by our guide, Alen, and taken to our hotel by our driver Mr. Wong. We are staying at the Shantan Hotel which is very close to the Forbidden City in downtown Beijing. Great place!

We went took a cab to the Hard Rock Hotel in Beijing and had a nice western meal. We'll be eating Chinese this entire trip, so we thought we'd spoil ourselves first. A quick cab back to the hotel and we crashed.

First impressions of Beijing. It was night, but the city looks amazingly clean. We figure that they did so much clean up for the Olympics and it has remained that way 6 months later. The airport was beautiful. We'll see some more parts of the city tomorrow.