We're here!!

Well, we arrived in Beijing around 4 pm local time, 4 am home time. We had a 2 hour delay on the ground before take-off because our plane's satellite system wasn't working, which meant that the airline had to re-route to China and couldn't go over the north pole which is a bit faster than the other way. So, bottom line, we were delayed about 3 hours, making our 13 hour flight longer than we had hoped for. But the good part was that our flight attendant moved us to business class because she wanted our seats for the flight crew! Woo hoo! Can we say LEG ROOM??? I appreciated the extra space.

Our guide in Beijing, William, picked us up at the airport, and after an hour in traffic reminiscent of DC area rush hour, we arrived at our Holiday Inn. It's very nice, doesn't remind me at all of most Holiday Inns in the states. The bed is a BRICK, however. We are missing our Select Comfort mattress!! Praying for a good night's (morning's?) sleep!

Tonight we went out to dinner at a dumpling restaurant and sampled the local cuisine. It was excellent. William was quite bent on getting us to try the local liquor, so I gave it a try. You drink it in these tiny champagne glasses and it BURNS all the way down. Pretty gross stuff! Cleans out the sinuses! The Chinese beer was much better.

Anyway, we are back in our hotel for the evening (which is morning in Virginia) and praying fervently that we will get some good sleep. I'll post more tomorrow after we see some sights!