- Packing
- A week of extremes
- Preparation
- Dress Rehearsal
- H6, #13, and Bo
- Vlotho
- Stockholm
- Tallinn
- Helsinki
- Helsinki II
- St. Petersburg
- St. Petersburg II
- Moscow
- Beijing
- Beijing II
- Beijing III
- Beijing IV
- Xi’an
- Xi’an II
- Shanghai
- Nara – Halfway plus one day
- Kyoto
- Back in the (Former) USSR
- Muroran
- 180th Meridian
- Seward
- Ketchikan
- Vancouver
- St Paul
- Chicago
- New York City
- North Atlantic
- 78 Days and 9 Minutes
- London
Sort of a mixed day. Started out with an itinerary swap, so we will be hitting the Great Wall tomorrow. So we spent the morning getting the “Presidential” tour of Beijing: rushed between important places via a waiting car with tinted windows, entered without queuing, ate without seeing a bill, and, due to the dust and other factors, were in a haze for most of it. Sadly, no motorcade.
I was so disappointed in our tours of the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City that I spent some time mentally drafting a letter of concern. It was not a personality problem with our guide; we were just not getting what we wanted out of what we were seeing. While things were better in the afternoon, we are still planning a return trip to the Forbidden City on Friday to see if the Roger Moore-narrated audio tour has more insight. I had a chat with our guide this evening, so I think we are better in line with each others expectations.
Some of my concerns arise from an incorrect estimation about how tired we would be when we arrived from Russia and how difficult it would be to navigate Beijing. While we are tired, Beijing has not been difficult to get around, even for those of us who do not speak a word of Chinese. People have been friendly. With a bit of resourcefulness, we even managed a great dinner on our own from a restaurant menu written only in Chinese. It wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done.
Seismologists should be on alert around the time of the announcement of the Host City for the 2008 Olympics. I cannot imagine the potential global impact of over 1 billion people jumping in excitement. Tidal waves, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions…
Back to the Great Wall tomorrow.
This entry was posted in Around the World