Day 1: Jet lag and other fun side effects.

It hard to say if my first impression of Beijing was fair…I mean I had a splitting headache, I was hungry, things seemed to smell, and I wanted to throw up. It’s probably not fair to judge anything when you are in that condition.

The hotel


The room.

We proceeded to the hotel…Actually it was a very nice hotel with a few Chinese quirks, like you have to put your room card into a special slot in order to activate and maintain the power in your room.

Want power? Insert here.

First order of business after hotel check in, an authentic Chinese lunch. Yeah, just what I wanted….but in an effort to be a good sport I tried the food, at least some of it. It was palatable...kind of…Bottom line, did not cure my hunger, despite the large quantity of rice I partook of. My body wanted something else…

It was off to Tiananmen Square, and tour through a nearby park where we were introduced to a tree planted by David O McKay in the 1930’s with a proclamation about bringing the gospel to China. It was also talked about how President McKay had to travel by boat, was sea sick, then did not have the aid of bottled water and suffered terrible sickness upon arrival in China. All of the sudden I felt like wuss for my complaints about jet lag and headaches.

Don't I look cute with the Chairman in the background?

This is Henry, our local tour guide. He lead our group by carrying an American flag. So here we are in Tiananmen Square following around a Chinease man carrying an American flag....

Finally it was shopping. Now this is a sign of how tired I was, and how crappy I felt, not even shopping sounded like very much fun. I just wanted a bed, a good American meal, and a diet coke, none of which seemed to be in my immediate future.

The Ya Xiu market is a total assault upon every sense. (As if every sense in my body wasn’t under attack…) It is five stories, with different articles found on each floor. Of course Julie and I started out in the basement with the purses, shoes and luggage. It is one of the most brutal bartering systems I have ever encountered. Now normally I am quite adept in bargaining, however I was severely handicapped due to my physical condition. (As the days went on and I physically felt better, my bartering became much better.) You approach a vendor, and they literally physically drag you and badger you about what you want. They apparently don’t understand the concept of window shopping. I want to see everything and not make a decision in haste. Once in then they refuse to let you leave. On more than one occasion I had to physically remove someone’s hand from my body to escape. The first night I purchased myself two purses. I fell in love with a third….but could not get the price down. I was actually quite surprised that the prices were not better. I wanted really good deals, and they were hard to come by.

I can’t go into too much detail about the other goods I purchased, because they are planning on making their debut at Christmas time….

Finally it was back to the hotel and bedtime. Almost too tired to sleep, and still had the pesky headache. Woke up at 4:00 a.m., with that pesky headache still bothering me. Sent Rick, and about half a dozen of my friends an email about how they are to never again let me get on an airplane and travel half way round the world…. Also decided it would be a good time to blog a few details, only to discover that blogger does not work in China. Now the whole purpose of hauling my computer half way across the world, through several different airport security systems, was to blog everyday about my trip for my friends and family to enjoy. I specifically asked the travel agent if I could blog from China. “Oh yes” I was assured, blogging no problem. Travel agent is an idiot. Blogging is considered social networking, and social networking sites such as Blogger, Facebook and Myspace are not allowed in China. Blogger does not work in China, hence no daily blog.