4/30 River View Hotel in Beijing

We made it! Jean (very happy and smiley) picked us up at the airport and took us to the hotel around 3pm. She was so cute everything she said included “please, please, this way”. In the taxi I pulled out Violets Mandarin name and asked how to say it…. And we found out we’ve been saying it wrong! It is Mao (as expected) Shing (as in the first part of shingle) and You (rolling your tongue, like you do with an umlaut). Big Oops!! She also explained that her English isn’t good enough to be a guide. On the way to the hotel she received a phone call from Jason for us. Jason explained that Michael would be our guide and we would catch up the group tomorrow morning at 9am. He said for us to rest up for the afternoon so we were ready to go. We don’t just rest in our hotel well, so just before Jean left we asked where we were on the map and how long she thought it would take to walk down to the Forbidden City. She explained that it would be long way, around 45 minutes, so we asked about the Metro but she said there were many transfers and a taxi would be better. Great! Two seconds after she left, we keep hearing this ringing. There is a council next to the phone with 16 buttons on it and we keep thinking it was a phone call. Numerous rings later we realized it was our doorbell. Yes, our hotel room has a door bell!!!! Who would’ve thought! Jean was back with a nervous Jason on the phone… no, no, no, we go to Forbidden City with the guide, just stay at hotel. Too funny!! So we enjoyed an evening walking around and following Jason’s request to “stay close to the hotel”. What great sights! A pizza hut that looked like it belonged in Las Vegas on the main strip with all the lights and lanterns and the “door men” in their suits and hats.Bikes have their own lane to keep them separate from cars, not that they still don’t feel like they have the right of way no matter that the light is red… whew… they look so unconcerned as they just casually bike out (on a red light) in front of a car… but we haven’t seen one accident! Talk about a well oiled machine. Sounds like we are up to 147 cases of the Swine Flu but no airport closings yet!