Flying is not the best way to spend half a day, in my opinion. Especially not when you're crammed in between two families with toddlers on their way to visit grandma. The problem with little kids is they're not civilized enough to pretend that they're enjoying something as dreadful as flying. At one point I was managing to drift into sleep when the kidlet behind me decided to lay some mighty kicks on my seat back. I don't know what happened - maybe I have a secret kung fu warrior within - but my arm whipped out around the seat and whacked her on her precious little legs. She stopped. The guy in the seat across the aisle gave me a thumbs-up. I was very embarrassed.
So we staggered off the plane into mid-afternoon Beijing, and this is what we saw through the airport windows:
It was a sunny day. Really.
We made our way through the passport check (very politely and efficiently done), and found the baggage carousel. I visited the washroom while we were waiting and was greeted by no fewer than 4 attendants. When I was done one hurried into the cubicle to wipe everything down and refold the toilet paper while her colleague ushered me to the sink. When my hands were properly washed another lady handed me a paper towel while the fourth wiped the sink. That was one clean washroom.
The redoubtable Jessie met us as we emerged from the bowels of the airport and, together with guides Kevin and Eric, introduced us to our new standards, the red fish and blue fish we'd follow for the next 12 days. We UBC and University of Saskatchewan alumni followed Kevin with the blue fish into one bus; the University of Alberta grads were in the red-fish bus. And soon we were in our comfy room at one of the four Hiltons in Beijing. We had just enough energy left to go to the welcome reception, learn the basic ground rules from Jessie and meet a few of our new friends. Then - crash! into bed.
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