To Beijing!

Olivia and I woke up at 8:30am and we didn't have to be downstairs to get in the car for two hours so we went upstairs to the Concierge floor for breakfast.   We were the only people in there aside from the little waiter guy, who in true China tradition, was super overly attentive.   He handed us our plates and followed us around the buffet area.  Then when we sat down he pulled our chairs out for us.  When we got up to get some juice he rushed behind the bar so he could pour it for us, and then while we were eating he brought us coffee that we did not order.  After that he disappeared.  We were wondering where he went as we left but then discovered him by the elevators, where he had been holding an elevator open for us the entire time we were eating.  Dude, that's impressive and all, but you are trying WAY too hard.

Then we piled into the car with everyone and were off to Beijing.   Riding in a car with Andy for four hours was a bit... unpleasant.  He was throwing this balloon animal we bought him in our faces and generally making crazy amounts of noise for his small size.   At one point towards the end he pulled his pants down and was roaming about the van climbing on things totally bare assed.

And now it's time for: Crazy Things I Saw in China While Driving Through the Country for 4 Hours

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of these things, due to the whole being in a moving vehicle thing, but the stories are still pretty decent.

Thing the first:  We kept driving by all these little mounds of earth.  A few of them had shiny stuff piled on top of them (like tinfoil and wrappers) and we even saw a few with umbrellas and flags stuck into them.  We asked Angela what they were and she said that they put dead people in there and the shiny stuff is to start a fire because it is too cold to just set the ground on fire.   So we saw a ton of graves that were ripe for the burning.

And another thing:  We saw a bunch of dudes on the side of the road with dead pheasants and rabbits on sticks.   I suppose they were selling them, so on your afternoon commute to work you could pick up a nice tasty rabbit for dinner.

So after four hours of this we arrived at our hotel, which we have stayed at on both of our other China trips.  Once we got in our rooms there was a knock on the door and a housekeeping person delivered us what she called "Welcome Food"

 

The things in the center are Dragon Eyes.  You peel off that hard skin and then there is a see-through grape like thing with a seed in the center, which totally looks like an eyeball.  I think they taste disgusting, super musky and not sweet.  Blegh.

Since we didn't really do that many interesting things I thought I would share some pictures of stuff we have purchased thus far.

Liv bought this hat for about $4 at the street market in Shijiazhuang.  They had hundreds of them just piled up on a folding table.

I bought this gem at a stuffed animal shop at a mall in Shijiazhuang.  It's a Monchichi in a Totoro suit.  It is absurdly creepy, tacky and cute all at the same time.   I think I will randomly leave it on JT's bed to freak him out.



Those of you who have been in my apartment probably know that I have a thing for stupid cute stuffed animals.  But you probably don't know that I am no where near as bad as my sister.  Stuffed animals are like crack for her.   These are here purchases on the trip thus far.   And she also got another hat where the bunnies look like earmuffs.  We think the fox thing might be from a Chinese show but we aren't sure.  We have discovered the character's name is "Ali".   The turtle is a generic turtle and the hamster might be a character but we aren't sure.  They have this same hamster in about a million different sizes and colors (Olivia even got a larger pink one last time we were here)

So that's about it.  On our second day in Beijing we are just going to lounge about the hotel, pack for Hong Kong and then go to a business dinner.  We already did one of those but I didn't mention it because I didn't have any pictures.   THIS SHALL BE REMEDIED NOW