Chasing the Sun, Sept. 18, 2012

Well three days after leaving Marathon we finally arrive in Beijing. One night was spent in Los Angeles where we met up with our daughter Michelle. The flight from LA to Tokyo was 11 ½ hours, taking off at 3:15 in the afternoon and landing at 7:45 in the evening. The entire way we were going into the sun. Next to being in Alaska during the summer; it was the longest period of daylight we have experienced. Our son met us at the airport where we stayed the night. It then took 2 flights to get to Beijing; landing in Shanghai to clear Chinese immigration. Rush hour traffic in Beijing is one of the worst; we’ve been told. We’ll see; there are several cities that we will be visiting that have that claim to fame.

 The view from our seats over the Pacific Ocean

Beijing, Sept. 22, 2012

China is an amazing country of extreme contrasts; a meeting of communism and capitalism. The Chinese are learning to be good consumers. Our first day was spent exploring Tian’anmen Square and the Forbidden City. Saying it was immense does not do it justice.  Exquisitely beautiful, teeming with mostly Chinese tourists and hours of walking up stairs and down stairs- amazing array of faces, ages, children and the younger generation in all manner of colorful shoes and skinny jeans!

In front of Mao's Tomb

 The many palaces within the Forbidden City kept Jeff busy taking photos. To our amazement, many of the Chinese wanted their pictures taken with our kids. 

The Chinese said our son looks like Spiderman

 Canal inside the Forbidden City

 

All Generations make the pilgrimage to the Forbidden City

 A dinner of Peking duck rounded out our evening. The kids just left to go bar hopping in the “Times Square” of Beijing. We are looking forward to a good night sleep and recovering from what is left of the jet lag.