Wednesday, May 6, 2009

China Expedition


China, wow! From May 2-5 Lauren and I, with our friend Molly, were in Beijing. This was our first trip to China. China was about as wild as you dreamed about when you told your friends the hole you were digging in the ground was leading to China.

We left for Seoul Incheon Airport the morning of the 2nd around 5:45 am. We experienced "a first" on the China Air plane we took. Mounted somewhere on the very front of the aircraft is a camera. The monitor screens throughout the cabin display the view from this camera. Needless to say, I was glued to this screen about 10 minutes before landing until we arrived at the gate. It was incredible!! I recommend all airlines install this feature. I tried to snap a photo, it didn't come out too well...

We arrived in China around 11:00 am. After arriving, we gathered our bags and loaded a bus to the Beijing Railway Station.

Our first thoughts regarding China were the abundance of trees, grass, and greenery in general (not expected).


Once we unloaded at the railway station, we piled into a taxi headed toward Saga Youth Hostel (recommended if you are traveling to China)(We had the address of the the hostel in English, so at the airport we asked the man at the information booth to write the address in Mandarin).

Quickly we dropped the majority of our belongings off and headed out by foot toward The Forbidden City (according to the hostel, a 20 minute walk. According to my watch, 1 hour 10 minutes).

This shot was taken as we were walking down the alley near our hostel. It is looking in towards a courtyard, from the alley.

More to come...

2 comments:

Kathleen said...

Can't wait for the next installment!
Love ya!
Gram

Michael Macal said...

That is awesome. I have always wanted the front view of the aircraft to show up on the TV/Displays.