As expected the flight was long and uncomfortable.
From the states to Tokyo is a 13 hour flight followed by a brief layover
then another 4 hour flight into Beijing, China.
I had a Beijing guy named prince seated 2 spots over with the middle seat
empty, which was a blessing because I coulees sleep in the 2 spots. In between naps prince gave me some Chinese
advice and tips- very nice guy.
On the second flight they were playing water for elephants,
a book a really enjoyed but I hadn't found the time to catch the movie- The
book was based on a story of a circus elephant. But little did I know it was a foreshadowing
for our first few days.
Here I am on my way to china for a class called “Commerce in
China”, a hybrid course with online work and abroad travel. Over the past few weeks, some classmates and I
planned out a pre-trip to Beijing to ultimately visit the historic great
wall. Of the 13 classmates, 5 others
wanted to checkout Beijing before our class began in Shanghai. Because it is an online class, I have not met
any of the other students with the exception for a gal that works close to me, Jana. We met briefly for lunch and wanted to get ideas
for mapping out our itinerary.
We met the other 4 students in the airport- one of which I didn’t
even know was coming. After 24 hours of
flights and layovers, we arrived late at night in Beijing. I had arranged for a car to pick us up, well
5 of us. Trying to fit 6 people into 2
cars with mounds of luggage became chaotic, but not as chaotic as our typical after
school special arrival to our hostel.
The hostel is located in a historic neighborhood hutong (small alleyways).
The car could not navigate the narrow streets so we had to walk down a dark
Beijing alleyway at 1am with jet lagged minds fill with anxiety and need for
rest. Similar to an opening scene in an action
movie, as we began walking with down the dark alley with our massive amounts of
loud rolling luggage, a group of locals began following us. The walked right up behind us with loud music,
so we walked faster, then they walked faster.
As our racing minds began thinking the worse we scuffled along imagining
being ideal American targets for quick robbery, but fortunately we made it to
the hostel without issue. We were warmly
welcomed by our awesome host, Bob, who quickly got us in our rooms so we could
pass out.
Our hostel:
Kelly's Courtyard
