The trip to Beijing was uneventful. While the 6 AM departure from Denver
necessitated an early wakeup, I didn't sleep until the Japan Air flight from
Tokyo to Beijing.
The flight attendants on that flight bowed as I came aboard and called
me "Dr. Dan". By this point, I was tired enough to sleep for a couple of
hours.
The new Beijing airport is beautiful and was virtually deserted when we
arrived at around 8PM. After using an ATM, I caught a cab to the hotel;
paying twice what I should have.
Tom and Josh were just getting ready for bed when I arrived. I crashed
but woke up frequently.
9/18 - We all gave up bed at around 5 AM. Josh went for a run, Tom and I
for a walk. We were in search of Tai Chi but only found joggers.
We returned and after a quick breakfast, met out guide for the
day, "Selene". She is an outgoing 35 year old with a 5 year old son. She
majored in Chinese literature and had a good grasp of Chinese history
and culture and spoke English reasonably well. Selene seemed relatively
open and professed to being a Christian. She also said that this was not
the issue that it had been several years ago. We didn't see any churches in
our wanderings around Beijing; although I may not have recognized them.
Beijing itself was cleaner than I remembered - except for the fact that no
one cleans up after the dogs. The highways are in good shape but very
crowded with aggressive drivers. Given the drivers, there are surprisingly
few cars with damage. The number of higher end cars, Porsche,
Mercedes, Audi, etc) is surprising.
We visited two sites, the summer palace and the Temple of Heaven. In
the temple of Heaven, Selena explained that the round structures are
related to heaven while the square ones are related to earth. The summer
palace is on a very large artificial lake that has been dredged out by hand
over more than two thousand years. It was a warm, blue sky day which
made for a pleasant visit in spite of the large crowds.
Because this was a government subsidized tour, we were obliged to visit
a silk store and a pearl store. They showed how they take the cocoon and
make thread and comforter filling from it. The dead silk worms can be fried
up and eaten and theirs turds used for tea - yummy!
We had Selene drop us at a lake surrounded by restaurants and
shops. We gave her a 20% tip. Upon seeing this she snorted and tried
unsuccessfully to hide her disappointment. We wound up giving her
around 200 yuan to split with the driver- about $35 total.
We had a couple of beers and people watched while we waited for Peter
to return from his tour. We fortunately found him in the crowds and ate at
a BBQ that had no resemblance to BBQ'd food in the US. Very good food,
but different. The large meal cost around $12 each.
9/19 - We woke up early (not a problem due to jet lag) to catch our cabs
at 6AM. The traffic was light enough that the driver was shaving while he
drove. When we got to the airport, they could not find a record of my ticket.
The ticket agent and several others were most unhelpful. The United ticket
counter and office were closed. Finally, I called United in the states and
got the correct ticket number. I went to the sales agent who said everything
was in order but the ticket still couldn't get it done. Another trip to the sales
agent was required before we achieved success. This normally wouldn't
have been a big deal except Josh and I were on the same Tibetan travel
permit. Without it, they won't let you on the plane.
After getting through Chongqing with only a minor repeat of the Beijing
ticket issue, we were on our way. The plane arrived over Lhasa only to
divert to Chengdu.
Announcements were made but only in Chinese so Josh and I followed
the crowd. We were put up in a small hotel by giving the hotel desk our
boarding pass and a slip of paper that had been handed to us stating that
the flight was cancelled.
Josh and I then walked around until we found a restaurant. We ordered
by pointing to some plates of food on another table in this very small
establishment. The food was great. We had four or five plates and two
beers and the bill came to $12 total.
