Ni hao from Beijing

joLynn and I have arrived safely in Beijing. It was a long flight via Narita, Tokyo. We left Minneapolis at 3 p.m. Sunday and arrived in Beijing at 9 p.m. Monday (I believe we are now 13 hours ahead of Minneapolis).

I had arranged for people from the hostel to come pick us up at the airport, and when we stepped out of customs, we scanned down the huge line of people holding name cards. Finally I see my name, held by what appeared to be a 12-year-old boy. Brain quickly scans list of Chinese trivia--one of most unsafe places in the world to drive/most traffic accidents. Great, and now we are being toted through Beijing by a kid. Happily by the time we met up with them at the end of the line, we saw that an older person was with him, and that dude drove. We did not die. After driving for a half hour or so, he turned into a hutong, with very narrow alleys. It was rainy, and there was a lot of mixed traffic--mostly bicycles, some mopeds, some cars, pedestrians--zipping through this alley which is approximately four feet wide.

Our hostel is decent and friendly. We went to sleep pretty quickly last night, and I woke up early this morning and went for a long walk. In the two hours I was walking, I only saw two Westerners, and that was right outside the hostel. It is a gray day, lightly misting. A man on the street offered me a massage for 10 yuan (like, 80 cents). I promised Shad I would not do that sort of thing. I also promised him I would not eat street foods, which was difficult because there was a place selling fried sweet breads and other dumpling-like things in one of the alleys I was walking through. I walked towards it and away from it four times--looks yummy, no I'll get a belly-ache...smells good, no, I promised Shad--. I did not buy anything. Which really stinks, because I love trying new foods, but I actually have a wimpy stomach. And Shad is not here to rub my belly if I get sick.

Did I mention that the traffic is crazy? I try to ally myself with someone who knows what they are doing when I want to cross the street. I joined a throng of people waiting to cross one of the main roads right outside the hutong this morning. Everyone walked out into the bus lane even though the light said don't walk. Bikes streamed through our group, and we had to stand in the bus lane, with a bus bearing down on us, while whoever was leading the mob decided whether we would continue on through the six lanes of traffic.

joLynn just woke up and we're going to head out for the day. On the agenda is the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and whatever else we stumble upon... Zaijian!