Beijing Day #1

Woke up at 5 AM in the morning after a restful night's sleep to a rainy countryside landscape. Much to the chagrin of my fellow passengers, I quickly discovered that I had still not mastered the art of pulling open these sleeper cabin doors quietly. I got a lot of interested looks as I sat in the hallway reading more of Julie & Julia, which I take to mean there weren't a lot of foreigners on this particular train to Beijing.

Almost missed my liaison, Mr. Wei, as I exited the train. Apparently, one Chinese person whom I've never met before is hard to spot in a crush of other Chinese people equally anonymous to me. He was kind enough to chauffeur me to my hotel, which is conveniently located right in the center of the city. It was surprisingly decent given its somewhat shabby exterior, and in any case, I am grateful for hot showers and adequate beds after a 24 hour train ride. We explored the surroundings a little, had some good Sichuanese food from a hole-in-the-wall restaurant on DaDong street, and went over some Tibet paperwork.

Called the Beaudreaus around 6 PM to pick up Lydia & Dorelan at the Beijing Airport. Leigh Anne looked a bit dazed still from her epic hike of the Great Wall the other day, but we all made it onto the public shuttle like tried-and-true troopers. [Note to future travelers: the public shuttle at the train station is only $2, whereas god knows how much the taxi drivers in Beijing will try to charge you, and you get there in about the same time.] Lyd & D arrived at the airport around 8:30PM, looking surprisingly perky given their journey. We rushed back to the hotel, changed, and then it was off to celebrate my birthday despite our mutual exhaustion! (Man, I love my friends!)

Based on the concierge's recommendation, we went to the SanLiTuan district, which is a few tree-lined streets with some bars and clubs. It wasn't super packed on a weekday, but it was cute, and the lights scattered all over the place gave the evening a pleasant glow. We ended up choosing Club Swing, which definitely caters to Westerner's. There was a live band who were taking song requests from the audience (which was impressive as there were quite a range of countries represented), and they represented Rammstein and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among other artists, well. We also had our first tastes of the Chinese beer, QsingTao, which is light enough to not get most Asians tooooo drunk. At midnight, Lydia and Dorelan surprised me by saying "Happy Birthday" to me in Chinese, which they had practiced on the airline - how sweet!

Leigh Anne had a 4 AM flight to catch the next morning so we didn't stay out too late. My tipsy impressions from the rest of the night involve wanting to buy some balloon animals from a woman from the Chinese countryside, and being happy that we were actually charged by the meter for our ride home. Maybe 26 is going to be a good year after all :-)