July 5, 2007 – Tokyo and Beijing
Our connection in Tokyo was smooth – however we needed to pass through another security checkpoint before making our connection. This little detail took some time, and as we reached our gate the plane was boarding for Beijing.

We arrived at the Beijing Airport on schedule and breezed through Immigration/Customs. So far it’s hard to tell what Beijing is like – our pilot told us visibility is 3,000 meters and we quickly see that this is due to a persistent haze in the city.

We were met by our guide for the weekend – Belinda. She is very nice – immediately grabbed us some cold bottled water and led us to our van for the trip to the hotel. As we depart the airport terminal, I am immediately hit with a sensory overload. Lack of sleep, hot humid haze, and a strange, somewhat industrial smell to the air that I find pleasant but also imagine cannot be healthy.

The parking garage is brightly lit, and loud classical music is piped in while we load the van. So far all everything we see is written in both Chinese and English, making navigation pretty straightforward.

Our van driver is not the model of efficiency, on the other hand. He got a bit turned around and had no problem taking a wrong-way detour in a round-about, with large busses bearing down on us flashing their headlights in warning. It was a bit terrifying, but I think we were so tired that we could not even achieve target heart rate in this situation.

The remainder of the drive is uneventful except we notice a heavy police presence in and around the city. Belinda helps up check in and we finally crash for the night at about midnight local time. It’s been a long day of travel (roughly 21 hours since we left Seattle until our head hits the pillow) and sleep is imperative.