Day One in China

Day One. Well, I made it onto the plane. After packing my bags for China and Chile and cleaning my apartment until 4:30am, I wasn't sure that I'd wake up in time for my 8am ride to the airport. So, I booby trapped my bedroom with four alarm clocks, strategically placed around my room and set at different intervals. I even had time to clean the bathroom and make a quick run to Target. There are 11 MBAs on our flight from South Bend to Chicago.

I'm excited about the possibilities and future adventures that await in China. Most people probably read guidebooks before their trip--heck, I bought mine in July, but I'll be reading them on the plane. When I went to Europe, I somewhat knew what to expect, but my knowledge of China is limited to middle school social studies and perhaps a world history class freshman year of high school. It's kind of like diving into a dark & murky pool. You're going in, but you don't know what's there.

We are definitely now flying over Chicago on this 30 minute flight. The houses are closer together than matchsticks in a box. China, ready or not, here I come.

I am now aboard the Chicago to Beijing flight. It was a bit chaotic boarding this plane, a Boeing 747. Everyone just rushed en masse to the gate. My seat is in the inner middle of the plane...blech. I immediately took a two hour nap, dinner, another 1.5 hour nap. The inflatable pillow I brought is no substitute for laying horizontal on a Serta mattress. After 6 hours, I was feeling a bit claustrophobic, so made a white Russian (new drink for me) and walked around the cabin. 12-13 hour flight to Beijing.

We arrived in the airport and customs/immigration was surprisingly simple. Our tour guide's name is Tina (Tan Jiang). She is a Beijing native and has given tours for 3 years; her English is very good. We left the airport and were greeted to a thick haze over the city. My first sight of smog. Our tour bus is nice and the traffic patterns are quite wild--drivers are very bold and get too close for my comfort. Lots of cars honking horns, bikes ringing their bells, and pedestrians quickly dodging the traffic.

First, we went to the hotel, the Paragon, which is a Howard Johnson hotel. The nicest Howard Johnson hotel I've seen. Next, we went to an outdoor snack market, which was set up like a Minnesota State Fair--everything is on a stick. However, I sincerely hope that I never see that type of new food at a State Fair in the States. Shrimp, giant prawns, chicken, snake, silkworms (in shell), starfish (how is this even possible?), octopus tentacles (raw), fried scorpions (of all sizes, from nickel-sized to salad plate-sized) and cow stomach. It didn't look that great or smell that great, so we all passed. The presentation though was very colorful.

We had dinner with a lazy Susan table and 6-7 different dishes. Pork, beef with potato, spicy beef with tofu & veggies, duck, some seafood (scallops?), leak and bean sprout soup and chicken with peppers. For drinks, we had Coke, tea, and Chinese beer.

Back at the hotel, Mark and I found an ATM to get yuan (the Chinese currency). Bought a $12 phone card and called home. (was about $1/minute). The other seven in our group of 9 in Beijing are getting massages, while Mark and I created our own lobby space in the 7th floor hallway. We're both exhausted and waiting for our rooms to open up. Long day!

(We lost one day, crossing the International Date Line. Our plane left Chicago on Thursday at 12:30pm and we arrived in China on Friday at around 1:30pm) The time is 12 hours ahead of Eastern time.