SHANGHAI & BEIJING, DAY 6 - TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2008

I’m wide awake at 2:45. Small wonder, I’ve slept most of the last full day and previous night. I think Mao has retreated, but coffee is not the first thing I think to drink. A little room temperature Sprite seems the more cautious test. So far, so good, and I fired up the laptop.

Everyone’s up, packed. We decide to head up the block to Starbucks for breakfast, but find them closed at 9 am. Odd. Back to the hotel for breakfast. I’m still not eating, but I do try some coffee. We pile into a cab, first trip with all three of us and all our bags. The driver is mad that Scott puts a suitcase on the front passenger seat, mussing up his custom seat cover. I thought we might end up walking to the airport, but things get smoothed over and off we go. Our China Southern flight leaves on time at 12:05, a very roomy and clean plane. Service is excellent, and a real meal is served. I decline food agin, but Dee and Scott eat well. The flight to Beijing is 2 hours and 20 minutes, and before you know it, we can see Beijing. The sky is cloudless, the day is blue, it is about 49 when we land. Since this is a domestic flight, all we have to do is pick up our checked bags and find a cab, easily done, and off we go to downtown Beijing.

The ride is mostly on highways very much like our interstates, with the exception of all the signs - huge Chinese characters, but English language underneath. The skyline is much lower then Shanghai, far more open, with the largest buildings only 10 or 15 stories. We exit the large highway system to a series of broad boulevards, and turn onto a huge boulevard, about 5 lanes in each direction, Chang An Blvd. It is the main east - west thoroughfare, traversing the center of the city, past rows of hotels, government buildings, Tien’An Men Square and the Forbidden City. Our hotel, Raffles Hotel, is in a connected row of seven or eight story hotels, sandwiched between the Beijing Hotel and the Grand Hotel Beijing. The Raffles Hotel is part of a chain of hotels spread over the world, and this building was built in 1900, and was most recently renovated and opened by Raffles in 2006. We pull up to an impressive front, with doormen and bellmen in full uniform, evoking a turn of the century old world place of solid luxury. This first impression is borne out during our stay. We check in and are escorted to our large, well appointed room, and by 4 o’clock, we are generally unpacked and happy to be in Beijing. We explore the hotel. There is a fully equipped 6 lane modern bowling alley, a full spa, billiard room, two story athletic complex, indoor pool, massage center (foot massages in China are ubiquitous), an entrance to the Beijing subway is 100 yards from the front door, and the Forbidden City and Tien’An Men Square are 300 yards straight up the sidewalk (which is as wide as our roads).

Dee and Scott pour over our growing collection of guide books, looking for restaurant choices. I haven’t eaten for two days, but the prospect of a strange meal of Chinese cuisine is less than exciting. They select a place called “Boguobuyi”, known for its Sichuan style cooking. I’m so lucky. Sichuan is a province of China, most known for its fiery, spiced cooking style. Just what a tender tummy needs. My family loves me so much. After a rather long cab ride, we arrive. It is very busy, a large place with several connected dinning rooms, and seems to have a family clientele. We are the only westerners there, and but for Scott’s language skills, we would have been pointing to pictures of dishes on the menu and grunting. The young waitresses giggled at us, mostly at Scott, and he did the ordering. A pork dish, a chicken dish, an eggplant dish, all tossed with various veggies, mushrooms, peanuts, in sauces of various levels on the Scoville scale I figure if my stomach will take this, I am truly cured. It does, and I am, and we all fill up on a really special meal. We are visited by a precocious 8 year old who speaks remarkably good English, having learned it only at school. We chat, and he asks many questions about America. Dinner is very inexpensive, and back to Raffles we go, destined for a deep and welcome sleep.