We Are In Beijing!

We made it into Beijing around 3:30 pm Beijing time (3:30 am eastern US). The flight from Columbia to Chicago was easy. The flight from Chicago to Beijing was really long (13 hours) so we are really looking forward to doing it again in 2 weeks with a 2 year old. Our flight was via the polar route. We were within 50 miles of the North Pole at the half way point. The people in Beijing are really friendly. We had a really unusual experience when we were looking for a place to eat. The Chinese are very eager to stop you on the street to practice their English especially since the Olympics are here next summer. This young very friendly girl stopped us to practice and we made the mistake of asking her where a good restaurant was located. Before we knew it we were in an art studio where she works and she was showing us the inventory. We didn't buy anything but the artist wrote our names in Chinese calligraphy. They said they were free and meant it but we gave him 7 yuans ($1) for his troubles. We finally found a restaurant and the pointing at the menu method worked fine. We had ribs, vegetables, steamed rice, and bottled water (we can't drink from the tap) for 128 yuans (only $17 for the 4 of us).