January 6/7 - 55 of us (5 from Minnesota) departed from San Francisco at 11:05 AM on the sixth en route to Beijing, China. The flight on the huge 747 was over fourteen hours long and, because of the time change, it was already 2:30 PM on the seventh when we arrived in Beijing. We were met at the brand new international terminal (built specially for the Olympics) by our local guides Lin and Lulu. As our buses took us into the city for supper, the enormousness of the city became quickly apparent. There were skyscrapers as far as the eye could see in every direction. We had an authentic supper complete with chopsticks (which were definitely a struggle at first!). We quickly learned this type of meal would be very common while we were in China. Many different types of dishes including chicken, beef, pork, vegetables, fish, soup, and rice were placed on a large rotating glass disk in the center of the table along with hot tea and coke and sprite. There's no need to pass anything, you simply spin what you want to you!The food itself is very different from American Chinese food. We enjoy flavors from the Cantonese part of China at home, but we were on the other side of the country for our trip. Here, they use a lot more seaweed and hot seasoning (even though the served us mild dishes) and the texture of everything is much much different than a home. After our meal, we headed back to the hotel and fell asleep very early, only to wake up around 4AM due to the fourteen hour time difference. It may be the only time I willingly got up that early.
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