Finally a chance to make contact! We're Here!

Hi everyone,

We made it. We are here in Bejing and we made it on time, whatever day it was when we got here.
So Noel, Joanne, Charlie & Rita take a deep breath, we're good to go...

It's Saturday night here and I come to you from a net bar near the hotel. It's jammed with gamers, and is in the basement of what looks to be an office building. I am one of 2 Americans among the 120 or so that are here. Row after row of flat screen monitors, no light lots of smoke, and lost of chatter. It's difficult to describe...It's like something out of a movie. It only took about 5 minutes to communicate with the cashier, and another 10 to log all the way in.

Let me start again...We made our journey here pretty much on time and in good shape. The Bus. Class upgrade was the way to go - unbelieveable difference. PHL to Detroit was smooth (Lisa got us FC on this leg.) In Detroit, we were able to hang out in the Worldclass Club. It was really a nice break from terminal fast food. They had a great selection of snacks, drinks (incl. beer, wine & liquor), fresh fruit, comfortable chairs and a TV to kill time. We relaxed for about 90 minutes before heading to our gate.

Detroit to Tolyo was long but bearable due to seats, meals, and entertainment options. Fairly current movies on a personal entertainment unit, and a running view of the flight's progress. This got old really quickly - not unlike to monotony of seeing EVERY mile marker on the PA & Ohio Turnpikes on the trip from Philly to East Grand Rapids.

After landing on Tokyo, we had about 30 minutes to make our connection, which we did. The flight is a bit of a blur still. The most memorable thing was the layer of smog that was apparent on approach to Bejing airport.

Luckilywe made it off the plane quickly (because of the BC seats) - but that really didn't matter since the wait at Chinese customs took about 40 minutes anyway. Baggage was when we got there and we sailed through the last checkpoint.

We met up with the 3 other families in our group, and our guide Kathy and hit the hotel - just like the itinerary.

Today was a great day...(see the next post for more details since the server here at the net bar seems to be a little nervous and jerky)...