There and Back to Beijing.....
This July we held the our annual high school reunion back in the Motherland. I guess all the reunions before that in a way tried to recapture the magic of our times there but this one was brute force total recall.
Here are some notes: Sat 16th July- Boarded a international flight for the first time since 2001. Was elated to leave homeland security behind....'no fly' list my eye. 13 Hours straight in a continental airlines synthetic chair is enough to drive a human being insane...(also I had to remind myself not to get up too suddenly to stretch) ...flight went over the north pole and at 1 billion ft altitude so looking out the window was inviting a cornea burn and an ozone shower...it would be much nicer if we traveled at that speed (600 Mph) at a 100 ft weaving in and out of traffic ..now that would be a ride I would pay for ....I wonder if I'd last 13 hours though......watched the same frasier episode 6 times.... and ravenously ate every single meal that came by including my friend's who was sitting next to me ...funny how doing absolutely nothing physical still makes me hungry....
Landed at a hazy Beijing International Airport... airport has changed a whole lot...I didnt recognize anything.....its huge...with grand entrances and facades .... immigration was a synch ...even though it was without a protocol officer doing all the work and I had no RED passport this time...good bye diplomatic immunity....another obvious thing was the PLA.... or lack there off...they used to be everywhere....I couldnt find any...and no guns ...or the ubiqutous AK-47...quite a change from the Orwellian States of America... Driving to the hotel was like walking through a erector set toy store ....Skyscrapers seem to be going up everywhere....the skyline is changing rapidly...and of course traffic is insane.... before the only cars plowing the road were the small box shapped yellow cabs, the high powered diplomatic cars and the white plated police audi a4s.... now its packed with private cars...every make and every model...and all kinds of drivers....:)
Jet lag hit me like a truck around 4pm ...i was out like a light...and when I woke up I didnt know where I was...time, country or place....we went to dinner at a chinese place (ahem..) right next to Frank's Place...(which is still there)...got lost on the way there...ended up walking around near the worker stadium where we saw a bunch of people learning how to Ballroom dance on the pavement...only in the PRC....
