Trip of a Lifetime - Day 2 - Beijing

When we woke up in our lovely room at the China World Hotel at 5:30 a.m. (still running on Texas time, I suppose) we decided it would be foolish to stay in bed as we wanted to try to get our body clocks adjusted to Chinese time.
After taking a shower and dressing, we ventured downstairs to get a little bit of breakfast. After all, nearly 6 hours had passed and we hadn't eaten a thing. A wonderful breakfast buffet breakfast awaited us, so we ate our fill of goodies. There had to be at least 40 different kinds of breads and rolls,



all sorts of fresh fruit, juices, cereals as well as eggs cooked any way that you would like. The Chinese eat soup, rice, pickled vegetables, olives, cold cuts and assorted things that I wasn't sure what they were for breakfast, but we stuck to Western food, at least for our first breakfast meal here.



After breakfast as we were looking around the hotel, we found this delightful hotel employee whose name was Mitch. She helped us with our plans for the next couple of days while we are still on our own in Beijing. Our tour with the Viking Company doesn't actually start until the 3rd, so we wanted to do something that was not included on their agenda for us. Mitch is Filipino and speaks very good English, so we asked her for suggestions. As it was very hot and humid outside, we decided to take it easy and enjoy the hotel for the rest of the day and start our sightseeing tomorrow.



We had lunch at the Nada Man restaurant in the hotel which is a little like Hibachi 97 at home. Even thought the food was cooked in the same manner, it was very different and absolutely delicious.

We started with a mixture of pickled vegetables.



Then the chef prepared grilled garlic which was similar to chips as he used Elephant Garlic and sauteed it on the grill in olive oil with lots of salt, followed by fish, beef, fried rice, Chinese beer and of course we finished the meal with a cup of tea.


Later that afternoon we met with Mitch again and she arranged a car and driver for us early tomorrow morning. It gets very hot in the afternoon, so she suggested that we start out in the morning and then possibly stay in the hotel in the heat of the day.
After lunch we took a little siesta and were so comfortable with our surroundings that we decided to have a drink in the lobby bar, listen to some music by a string quartet and stay at the hotel the rest of the evening. There is music in the lobby every day beginning at 8:00 a.m. and lasting until midnight, I loved it!
After a light supper, we played cards, watched a movie on TV and were in bed by 10:00. We know that tomorrow will be a long day but we're about to get caught up on our rest. In the words of Miss Scarlett, "Tomorrow is another day" and there are surprises around every corner!
Pcasso