After a full day in Littleton, our band of 16 students and 6 adults bundled onto flights from Denver, through Los Angles and Seoul to arrive in Beijing. Our travel time was 23 hours to arrive at Beijing's bright new airport. The airpport is absollutley huge. The ceilings vault way above our heads and the concourses are far flung across a massive area. Systems all seemed online, but the airport itself seemed almost deserted. Both the Seoul and Beijing airports we visited had been opened just this year and have that "new airport" smell [;-)
The only glitch we've had so far was about half our luggage did not arrive at baggage claim. But that adds to the experience:
- Always pack enough to survive on for two days in your carry-on.
- Keep your boarding pass stubs and baggage claim checks handy at all times.
- Be nice and patient... this kind of ting happens.
Ms. Sabey, her husband Mark and her oldest son Brian were outstanding interpreters as we discussed the need for someone to find our missing bags and bring them to our hotel. The Chinese officials were very understanding and we expect to get our bags today.
We visited a pre-arranged lunch spot which should have been on China's Top-Ten tourist traps for thecity of Beijing. But the food was nice, if a bit tame and the people so polite. We hustled off, jeg-lag and all to walk through the Forbidden City and see Tiananmen Square. The it was on to a Kung Fu theatre where some of us were treated to an amazing demonstration of martial arts set to classic Chinese mythology. I say some of us, because some of us passed out due to jeg-lag in the darkened theatre.
We made it back to the hotel and everybody is tucked away getting some needed Zzzz's. It'll be a big day on Monday as we will visit the University and see if we can build our first relationships. I will take a side trip to visit International School Beijing. I have a map and some directions in Chinese for th taxi... into the breach we go!
Check out http://china.littletonpublicschools.net and look at the videos link. I have a teacher tube video up now and will do a ustream.tv broadcast in about 90 minutes.