Our Journey to the Middle Country

[17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30]

Saturday 18 March 2000: (Columbus - Detroit -) Tokyo - Beijing

NW 11

I'm not certain what time it was when we crossed over and suddenly found ourselves in Saturday. But, some time before we arrived in Japan, we lost most of the day on the plane.

Tokyo

When we arrived in Japan, we had to go all the way down the concourse and back through security just to get back on our plane.
We hung out in the boarding area and stretched our legs. We also bought a bottle of water or something to drink. I paid in USD and was very close to the amount. My change was a 5 Ren coin.

I also picked up a few brochures for phone cards. I wish we'd have found postcards or something. This desire would come up again later on in the trip.

NW 11 (continued)

After a stop over in Tokyo, we continued on to China.
The fourth family in our travel group arrived after 7pm local time in China:

Janet and her cousin Bette

Beijing

We arrived in Beijing, China and it was very late in the evening. It was dark outside as the remaining nine families of our group of thirteen all arrive:

Kris & Steve and their daughter Hannah and son Jonathan
Tammy & I
Kim & Paul (who we had met in Detroit)
Marycatherine & Doug
Lauren & Bud
Loretta and her brother Bill
Mary Beth & David and their daughter Stephanie
Diana & Steve and their daughter Jade (who we had also met in Detroit)
Lori & Wesley and their son Adam
There were a total of twenty-three people, not including the other eight already at the hotel. Thirty-one people here who would get 13 babies for a total of forty-four... Wow!
We walked a long way to customs and immigration. The airport was nearly empty but there was a man cleaning the lights. We checked in through customs and headed down to the baggage area.

We met Duan Hong Fei, who went by David Duan, our guide for all of China. He had a yellow pennant flag with GWCA on it. We gathered our luggage and walked out in the dark to the bus to go the Holiday Inn Lido
Beijing is at nearly the same latitude as Columbus, so the weather was similar. It was cold and dark.
Sadly, I lost my pin with crossed flags someplace before we arrived at the hotel. If it was on the bus, I never did find it. I hope that someone found it and kept it.

Holiday Inn Lido - Beijing

The Holiday Inn Lido Hotel
Beijing Jichang Rd, Jiangtai Rd,
Beijing, China 100004
Phone: (8610) 6437-6688
Fax: (8610) 6437-6237
There was some document that we had to make copies of the very first night.
We exchanged $50.00 USD for about 403.50 Yuan down at the front desk. The porter who took our bags to the room received a $5 USD tip, which we would later learn was way too much. And not thinking that we had enough money, we again exchanged $50.00 USD at the front desk.
The beds in the hotel were so very low, but we didn't mind as we fell asleep....

[17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30]