11 hours and 30 minutes

Eleven hours and thirty minutes on a plane…that’s a long time. Our whole first day was spent on that 747 (photo included just for you, Ang!) The thing about really ridiculously long international flights like ours is that they do provide in-flight movies, like four of them. Reading is always a great option too. Travel books and poetry made the 11 ½ hours a little more bearable. Oh and the Ipod. My grandma just got an Ipod Nano for her b-day, which, in my opinion, makes her the most rockin’est grandma I know.

As soon as we hit the road in Beijing, it was already apparent how much we take for granted in America. Looking out the window, the sights you see are so completely different. There is massive construction all around…gearing up towards the 2008 Olympics, but not only that, there’s a lot of new construction all over China. They joke about the national bird being the mechanical crane and it is true, everywhere you look there is high rise construction. The interesting thing about the construction is that you’ll see these new nice looking buildings and apartments going up right next to these old run down shacks. I wish I could have got a good picture to illustrate what I’m talking about. I’ll work on that one.

A lot of people still get around by bicycle. I was reading in one of my books about China that vehicle ownership in China is 22 cars for every 1,000 people. When you compare that to 764 cars per 1000 in the US, it is easy to see why there are so many pedal powered people here. I’ve included some pictures, if you look real closely, you will see this lady with her daughter on the back of her bike is pedaling down the road in heels. And my favorite bike…or whatever it is…wouldn’t you like to own this rig?