Day 1 - Arrival in Beijing

Into Hong Kong airport very early in the morning with plenty of time to get our connecting flight on Dragon Air to Beijing. Long wait at the security gate and they're quite strict on the new rules about resticting liquids to 100ml bottles, but I was allowed my bottle of Saline solution.

Had a bit of a snooze on the 3.5 hour flight to Beijing and it went quick. It was with some excitement when we emerged from customs and a group of people were there to greet us holding up Dad's name in Chinese. Of course I had no idea. The group included Zhou Li who is Deputy Direcor of the Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs of the State Council of P.R.C and China Overseas Exchange Association. They certianly don't believe in abbreviating Department names. Also there was her assistant Shen Ya Feng who just happened to have been born in the same year as myself which I found out later in the tour. There was also a young man Wang Yun who was busily videotaping us as we arrived and was to follow us during the whole tour. pretty good gig for a young man if you ask me.

They took us to a car and accompanied us to the Xiyuan Hotel , got there around 3pm and we had some time to rest before dinner in the revolving restaurant. Wow finally there after some 17 hours travelling.

Dinner was a buffet style with plenty to choose from. This abundance of food was to be typical of every dinner time and lunch time as well. We got to meet some of the others on the tour and sat opposite james from Canada and his wife, who could speak English so were the first people I chatted to other than my father since arriving. It was a bit embarrassing being the only person on the tour who couldn't speak Mandarin. To my surprise Dad told me that Zhou Li said she was organising an English speaking guide just for me so they certainly made me feel special.

We finished dinner at around 8.30 and dad decided to take me downtown to a place where they sell food on the street. It was very interesting and we looked around the shops for a little while where dad bought a belt, before heading back to the hotel for a proper sleep.