We made it! - Beijing!

Ni hao! (pronounced - Nee-How) It means hello in Chinese.
Our first day was good. We got through the airport customs and security within a matter of 3 hours. We found our two buses and tour guides amid the masses of people. There are sooo many people in Beijing, about 15 million to be exact.

There was a haze out that day and it was a bad air quality day. I was hoping that there wouldn't be this much smog out every day. Thankfully, it wasn't. There is actually great amounts of pollution in Beijing, our tour guide Maggie (that's her English name) informed us of this. She is a student as well and she went with us around Beijing explaining what some things were. Her English wasn't the best, but we managed.

I was groggy all day, but the tiredness didn't really hit me until we settled into the hotel. I was too excited!

Some bits of information I discovered before and while in China...there is very little concept of tissue and toilets, however we did have them in the hotels. Instead of toilets there are stalls with these toilet-seat like things in the ground...interesting, I know! They still manage to be incredibly clean people despite all of this. Outside, Beijing was very dusty, people walking and on bikes rode around with masks in order to shield their eyes. I didn't wear my contacts very much their because of this. There seemed to be construction everywhere. Half-finished buildings, scaffoldings, and cranes are everywhere. They are erecting buildings like crazy, I think, in order to prepare for the 2008 OLYMPICS!! It is so cool that they are having the Olympics there!!! More info, probably more than you want to know...the little children just "take care of business" in the street, most of them do anyway. We couldn't drink the water, so teeth brushing called for boiled water or bottled water. I used bottled water. There were a lot of times when we just didn't have time to boil water.

We went to a traditional Chinese restaurant the first night; they prepared a little show for us. They usually only serve Coca-Cola, Sprite and some of the most amazing tea you will ever taste in your life at their meals in the restaurants.

I slept like a log that night for sure!
Zàijiàn (goodbye - pronounced, Tsi-gen)