Day Next

This morning was our second breakfast at the Crown Plaza Fudan Hotel. Of all of the breakfasts I have had in America and Europe this one hits the mark for excellence and variety. No matter ones nation of origin there was something there to assuage homesickness with this buffet. Besides the good ol’ American food (Bacon, eggs, French toast, pancakes, salad bar, scrambled eggs and cereals) there was German (cold cuts of meat and cheese with breads and yoghurt), French (croissants, and soft cheeses), English (baked beans, grilled tomato and sausages), Japanese (noodles, fish balls, sushi and rice) and finally Chinese (dim sum, noodles, fried rice, stir fried vegetables, salt eggs (Yuk), preserved eggs (Double yuk) and congee – a boiled rice gruel with assorted toppings: pickled thingies, spicy thingies and salty thingies. And to top it off, juices of carrot, orange, watermelon and cucumber. Coffee came continuously ending with an espresso. This meal is called breakfast but never have I had some of these foods for the first meal of the day. Some I would not have for ANY meal of the day!

Today it rained in Shanghai. It made little difference since today after breakfast we were driven to the airport for our flight into Beijing on China Eastern Airlines. I assumed the plane would be a vintage 1950s prop plane with emergency parachutes strapped on our backs for this internal flight but it turned out to be an Airbus 330.

On to the Chinese capital of Beijing. I had heard of the pollution and traffic here long before we even thought about this trip. I grew up in LA. Pollution and traffic are not new to me. Let me state this categorically: Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see in this city. Today was a hazy 60F day. The visibility was less than a mile. The air smelled like the 4th of July after the fireworks are over - the acrid smell of sulfur, actually sulfuric acid. The traffic was stop and go for the many miles from the airport. This is a Saturday. The Chinese by their own admission describe their driving style as Jungle Rules. This is kind. Whether it is in Rome, Paris, Madrid or Bogota nothing compares to the free for all that is Beijing traffic.

After visiting the Beijing Zoo to see the Pandas we had a fantastic group dinner of Peking Duck. Stuffed, we got to our hotel and can now relax for a couple of hours before bed and wakeup call at 6 am tomorrow morning.

Our tour guide, Joy, is a cute, perky, petite 40 year old who looks 25 with an interesting history. She received a scholarship to Brown University in Rhode Island in 1989. Because she could not get an exit visa from the Chinese government she had to decline the scholarship and instead entered Beijing University, the best in her country, majoring in marketing with the hope of working for the Bank of China. After graduating there were no openings for the bank so the government gave her a job in the travel industry. If you refused the job at that time you would never get a decent job since the government controlled all jobs. Times have changed with the opening of free enterprise so she now works as an independent contractor leading tour groups. As a result she is really quite brilliant. She can answer any number of questions on any subject Chinese and enthralls the group with her wide range of knowledge. She also never misses a chance to get her digs in concerning the government and politics of her country. Think about it: Here is a woman who could get into an Ivy League college on scholarship but instead leads tour groups.

Thought for the day: No matter how all inclusive were our breakfasts in Shanghai there was no PEANUT BUTTER to be found on the buffet!