First Destination: Beijing, China
Crown Plaza Hotel – Beijing, China
Local Time: December 23, 2008 – 11:45PM
I am finally here! I’m sitting in the newly opened Crown Plaza Hotel in Beijing. It’s an extremely nice hotel with very nice facilities. I can easily see why it was ranked a 5 star hotel. It was a good feeling to finally climb onto the bus after having to bare through all the drama of the flight changes and such.
At the airport, we were greeted by our tour guide, June, and as I stood there waiting for her to gather up the rest of the people that was a part of the tour group, I noticed that many of the people were a part of families. There weren’t many people there that were around our age and even if they were – they certainly weren’t the sociable type. It’s probably too early to tell, but that’s my feeling on it. After rounding everyone up, we were quickly ushered off to dinner before checking into the hotel. Dinner was decent, but I think we were all amused by the fact one of the dishes was French fries. It was sort of a welcoming dish… and not a very popular one at our table.
After settling in at the hotel, we set out by foot to explore the local shops in hopes of finding some local treats in the area. The hotel is new so it’s pretty tucked away, but we did manage to run into some street vendors that served interesting food. I think they were really amused by us Americans trying to fit in with the local crowd. I should get credit for even trying.
Then it was back to the hotel for a nice rest before we start our big day tomorrow. Included on the agenda are the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and Summer Palace.
