Thursday September 2
This morning we woke up early to make our flight but it was pouring outside. When we got to the airport our flight was delayed 2 hours, because of a typhoon warning. But since we are in China, they ignored the typhoon and took us to Beijing anyways! The flight was pretty scary with lots and lots of turbulence. Of course they gave us lots of disgusting plane food too. When we got to Beijing the first thing I noticed was the horrible horrible smog that covered the city. I’ve been told that they significantly cleared up the smog for the Olympics, but believe me it’s back. The bus ride to the hotel was pretty long, about an hour I believe. On the way there we stopped at the Olympic park and took a few pictures, those buildings were seriously impressive! But not particularly exciting, I think we were all really tired out from the plane- and drinking some the night before…
When we got back to the hotel we had just enough time to change quickly and run down to the Beijing Opera. It was definitely an experience to remember… Full of tourists, translated into English, expensive drinks, short (the Operas normally last over 20 hours, this was less than one), not to mention the costumes didn’t even include the awesome masks that are usually associated with the Beijing operas. What a waste of a good dress.
It was an interesting experience though. I’ve noticed that China has really been stepping up as far as tourism goes. (though obviously I don’t know that much about it since it is my first time here) But this theater was on the first floor of our hotel, and the entire staff of the hotel had been trained to speak English… not exactly the best way to learn Chinese for our group- but of course it helps other tourists out significantly.
