Trying to Get the Hang of Posting in Chinese

Ok - I think I may have figured out the trick to posting to the blog. It appears that Blogger really is blocked in China but the tool that is used to update Blogger (called Blogger Dashboard) is not blocked. But it is in Chinese. So in trying to post to the blog, I feel a bit like someone in a room with no lights on. I remember where the buttons are (sort of). I just fumble around looking for furniture and the light switch etc. And I have no way to read the blog once we post something. Nice. So sorry in advance if the posts and the photos don't match.

We are now at the end of our first full day in Beijing. We are really getting into the swing of this place -- the beautiful hotel, the nearby shops, the restaurants. We took a nap this afternoon and just relaxed a bit. Tonight for dinner we went to a really good Hong Kong noodle place right near the hotel. It was a cool set-up -- at each table, they had a burner and they boiled the meat and vegetables right there (kind of like those Korean BBQ places except everything is boiled instead of fried). There was a nice variety of things that we cooked -- noodles, chicken, beef, mushrooms, tofu, etc. The server did most of the work and we just enjoyed it. It was just what we needed after the heavy lunch we had.

We kept asking the server for the Chinese name of the things we were eating. After a while, we gave up because her English was so much better than our attempts at Chinese. Everyone here has been so friendly -- it has really made it comfortable to be here and makes us feel good about the trip. It has been funny to see how Etu manages to make friends with everyone -- even if they barely speak English. She talks to the concierge and the lady in the gift shop and everyone on the airplane, etc. It's just so nice to have her here because she's a whirlwind of social activity and her smiling face attracts people.

One other totally random thing I just remembered from today: the drink we discovered today is a green tea that is sold in a plastic bottle similar to bottled water (I have attached a dorky photo of me holding a bottle of it). It costs about 40 cents and it is awesome. I downed two of them at the Summer Palace and then bought two more to take the the hotel tonight. They could do good business in the US if someone could figure out a way of selling it. It's not too sweet but is tasty.

Another random item from today. I picked up the China Daily today in the hotel lobby. It had a headline that read "China 'is no threat to anyone'". The sub-headline was: "Aim of economic development is to feed and clothe 1.3b people: Wu". I liked the simplicity of that headline.

Here are a few more photos from today -- from our trip to the Summer Palace. I like the one of R and Etu because it captures how happy we are to be here. I also like the one of Etu and Eugenio in front of the lake (we took a dragon boat across that lake to get back to our bus). Today gave us a glimpse of the amazing Chinese culture and history, as well as the friendly people. I'm sure we'll have so much more of that in the coming days.

Last item before I sign off: The last family in our China travel group (Elaine and Scott Sullivan) should have just left Dulles, VA an hour ago! They are on the same flight that we took on Monday -- the 12:20 p.m. out of Dulles via Tokyo. It's exciting to think that they will be here with us starting tomorrow night.

J.