Rise and shine ... time to get up and get ready for your flight ... this truly is an ungodly hour!
So many currencies ... so little brainpower at this hour ... which currency am I dealing with today...?!
CAD$1 = US$0.92 = Korean WON 891 = China RMB 0.133 ...
The tickets are still issued with carbon paper ... for a country so "wired" where are the electonic tickets?!
My travel companions/colleagues, JamieLynn (from Louisiana) and Rob (from Ontario), eating bagels and coffee at the airport! Notice the KFC sign in the background ... they are everywhere, bigger than McDonalds over here! :)
While waiting for our flight, which was delayed 1.5 hours, I painted a Korean Fan for my Goddaughter/niece, Natasha. The fan came with a stencil so it was a "paint by numbers" activity. I now have a better understanding of children learning to "colour between the lines" when they are learning to use a new tool (crayon, or paintbrush) it takes practice and patience ... each of which I am known to need work on from time to time! :)Of course it had to be perfect for my neice and before I knew it I was done and it was time to board our flight! This free activity sponsored by the Korean Tourist Department wrote something Korean on the back as well. I selected the word "Joy" for Natasha Korean (forever the proud Aunt!). It will hopefully be a keepsake for Natasha as well!
Our arrival in Beijing!
We arrive at the Beijing Airport 1.5 hours late, and find out that another traveller from Korea will be joining our tour (making the number with our tour guide and driver 4!). His plane is scheduled to arrive at 1pm and it is 11:30, we go for lunch and then at 1pm we see the flight is delayed until 2:20pm. At this point we are starting to get a little anxious and fearful of "missing" out on some of the promised highlights of our tour. At 3:30ish we finally leave the airport, less than impressed with the mixup and without the person that we waited for. Our poor tourguide was flustered by this as well.
We tried to stay enthusiastic and by the time we got going with our tourguide we were in full enthusiastic mode once again! I started snapping photos immediately to put my new 2Gb memory stick to good use! I took over 800 photos, all of which I won't be placing here but will try to select the most impressive to share here. On day 1 I snapped numerous photos of random buildings and roadways, they are so very different from North America. Take this toll bridge as an example, typical in China, but so unusual for a North American ... I just couldn't help snapping that camera. By the 4th day, on the drive back to the airport I had become used to the architecture and didn't feel as strong an urge to capture everything I saw ... well, almost!
The first "stop" of our Day 1 agenda was to be the Temple of Heaven, but we had to skip it and head directly to the Acrobat Show for 5:15!
The unassuming building where the Troupe performs and their bus!!
I had not been been to an acrobat show before and was thoroughly impressed, snapping photos left and right (remember the 2Gb stick to use!!) The boy in front of me was less than impressed, but our tour guide said we could take photos but no video. Everybody else was snapping too and I have to admit it was a little distracting ... but this was very impressive so I had to capture it on film.
The girls on these unicycles had bowls on their head and the show was centered around that. The girl in the middle is about to toss the bowl on her leg to her head. She did it with amazing success! AND while balancing on the unicycle. Ah ... to be young, fearless and flexible again!!
The men on the right were equally impressive with these "flags" ... tossing them back and forth like they were as light as feathers.
These two men climbed up and down these bars while bounding back and forth between them. Another impressive section of the show. No doubt the performers of this show made their start in gymnastics!
My favourite part of the entire show, hands down, is captured in the following two pictures. As a former gymnast and current Tae Kwon Do student I was not only impressed with the flexibility and strength involved to achieve these moves on ones own, but also with the skill required in working with a partner. The girl in the blue in the photo on the left, not only has to get into this mind boggling position, she also has to engage almost every muscles in her body to balance herself on the hands of her partner. As well, she must be prepared to counter any "flinches" from her partner! A wonderful and amazing combination of strength, flexibility, fearlessness and trust in your partner!
Oh yes, and I should also mention that she has bowls on her vertical foot that she tossed about while her and her partner transitioned into various positions?!
Not hard to tell that I was completely impressed, is it?!
After the show we went out for dinner - Chinese Food of course! First I NEED to snap a few more photos! Oh look, over there ... some interesting sculptures! Click, click! And of course documenting our first dinner in China!
. . . and back to the hotel to check in, explore the amenities and head to bed. We meet our driver at 7:30 am tomorrow and it is a jam-packed day (including the Wall!) so we want to be well rested. Not to mention we have been us since 4am today!
Our hotel and impressive chandelier.
Day 2 will follow shortly!!
