Saturday, June 2, 2007

6/2/2007 – 8:00 PM Local Time – Beijing China

Well, I have arrived at my first teaching location. I got into Beijing at around 3:30, and made it through customs and immigration fairly easily. Only trouble I had was due to my passport photo being so old that I hardly look like myself in that picture! But I got through! The ride to the hotel was nice, the roads are very well maintained and modern. The city is well groomed, but there is a level of smog hanging over the city, probably not unusual for a city of 12 Million. I heard that they are going to shut down industry for a couple of weeks before the Beijing Olympics to help with the smog problem. It will be interesting to see if that really happens! I scheduled a tour tomorrow. I splurged and got the personal tour even though it was a bit more expensive than going on a bus tour with many other tourists. I am going to go on tour to the Great Wall at Badaling, to see the Ming Tour and the Forbidden City. It will be an all day affair from 9 until 5 or so, but I am looking forward to the experience. This is where I plan to take a bunch of pictures! I just got done with dinner at the “American” restaurant. A strange take on American if you ask me, also very expensive. I had a chicken dish with a Caesar salad and a desert, all of which just taste a little different than home! Not bad per se, but different. Well, it turns out my fears of having no TV to watch was unfounded, in fact I think there might be more English channels here than in Singapore! Right now I am watching Star Wars Ep. 4, which came right after they showed episode 3, so I am thinking they are having a Star Wars marathon, so that is pretty cool. OK, so I am thinking about heading towards bed, so I will write more after my big day tomorrow! Brian

Here are some pictures from my room in the Hotel…




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1 comment:

Wendy said...

Of course Microsoft would have a huge building there. Bill Gates is taking over the universe...