Seattle to Beijing

After crawling out of bed at 5am we began our journey to the other side of the world. The flights here (three in total with stops in San Francisco and Hong Kong) were rather uneventful, but in the case of the SF to HK portion VERY, VERY long. I have a friend who makes the trip fairly regularly for work and having done it myself now I have a whole new respect for what coming out here for just a few days at a time must be like. And while the little extras like personal TVs, better food and more room are a plus, the seat that turns itself into a flat bed is worth its weight in gold.

We arrived in Beijing around 11pm. The good news about that is the airport (which is massive) wasn’t very busy so the lines through customs moved fairly quickly. By the time we got all checked in it was closer to 1 in the morning (about 10am Seattle time) so we took the opportunity to try out the video chat with the boys. We were pleasantly surprised that while it was a bit jittery, it works pretty well and it is a huge plus to be able to see their faces while we are away instead of just hearing their voices.

Looking out the window, it is very smoggy here (no real surprise) and I can see why the marathoners are all complaining about racing here for the Olympics. It looks like just walking across the street is about the equivalent of smoking 2 packs of cigarettes.

The plan for today is pretty low-key. Some general sightseeing, finding a travel agent to plan our trip to the Great Wall and Xian, and more or less just getting used to the time change. After a full day of meals on an airplane, finding a good hole in the wall restaurant is also quite high on the list.