Beijing

So alrighty then, we're here. Well that us and 1.5 billion Chinese. Sadly those 1.5 billion Chinese will never see this blog as it seems to be blocked here. Thankfully I thought ahead and set up a way to email this to the blog! Woo, always thinking ahead!

Ok, I gotta be quick here since my computer time is running out ...

I have been breathing as deeply and fully as possible in the interest of science in order to see the full effects of the air. So far nothing. I feel good and have only spotted a handful of face masks here. Those that do sport them tend to go for the more decorative kind (most of those sporting patterns of playful cartoon animals).

We spent the first day visiting the Summer Palace which I won't bore you the details of, but it was nice, if not warm. Once back near the hotel which is in downtown Beijing (near Tianaman Square) since we were so tired we decided we wouldn't go far and occupied ourselves by wandering the mall attached to our hotel. I can't really explain how bewildering the mall was, but we spent most of our time there horribly lost. Higlights included the manicure bar and the many unreconizable animal parts being sold at the market at the bottom of the mall. That's where we got our mystery meal for the night, which was okay, but not horrible, so I'm calling that a win!

The journey was 28 hours and we landed at about 5 am which meant that we had to stay up an entire day afterwards. I had the ambitious goal to stay up to 8 pm but only lasted till 7:15. That's mostly the reason I haven't gotten to writing this yet. My bad. Sorry gotta go now though! Time's up!