August 20, 2004

Subject: Ni Hao from Beijing!





Well we are FINALLy here! We arrived around 4 this morning (4 pm our
time) and its been so neat ever since. The plane ride was great. We
were on a HUGE aircraft- two floors! Each seat had a pillow,
blanket, and toiletry kit. Our plane took off right around 1:40 am
(which for our tired bodies was almost 5 AM) but we stayed up the
whole time and slept on the plane. We slept very well and it wasn't
as bad as I thought it would be. When we arrived, customs was a
breeze! We just handed them our forms and they stamped our passports
and took one form, and that was it! Our travel guide wasn't there
when we got out of customs. Apparently our flight came in an hour
earlier. But we found them and they are great! Our one guide is
named Liu and she is so sweet. Our bus drivers name is either Mr.
Zhong or John.. couldn't remember! We checked into the hotel around
6 am and got unpacked and showered. We ate at the breakfast buffet
which was okay, kinda gross. The water has lime and lemon in it.
Afterwards, we explored a bit. (Mom was of course saying.. no let's
stay in the hotel!) so we rented a taxi and went to a shopping mall.
Pretty cool just walking through it. I got sunglasses for 268 RMB..
roughly $30 and these were nice sunglasses.. I left mine at home. It
was funny, while we were waiting, we had 5 people helping us! One
was a guy and he was practicing his english on me.. a little bit of
a flirter.. haha i thought it was funny. it's weird in china, when
you find an item, they give you a slip and you take that slip to a
cashier who will stamp it and you give them the money, then you go
back to the place where your item is, hand the clerk your slip and
its yours! Mom even commented that if it was like this at home,
she'd buy less! :-) Well the internet access is not cheap, 10
minutes for 20 yuan.. so sorry I would write more. We are trying to
hook up the laptop and hopefully will get that done soon. Then we'll
send photos! Hope ya'll are okay! We miss you Elena, Kay and Ian!
Love,
Sera, Claudio, Nancy & almost Emma!