Day 67 Beijing, China

We left the friendly confines of our ship this morning and headed into the city of Beijing. This is a two and a half hour drive. At least it was for us, of course everybody's driver probably doesn't have to stop four times to ask directions, like ours did.
The first thing that struck me and in fact lingered the entire day was the smog in the air. It was so bad that looking at buildings only 100 yards away you could definitely see the haze. It is no surprise that the Chinese government had to restrict traffic and certain manufacturing activities prior to and during the Olympic games. The haze began as we departed the ship and stayed with us the entire way into Beijing. No need to worry about the effects of second hand smoke, it would be an improvement.
We are staying in the Grand Hyatt Hotel and I would recommend it to anyone. We met our guide in the lobby after lunch and went to tour the Olympic facilities. This turned out to be mostly walking by the swimming venue called the "Cube" and going in to the "Birds Nest" stadium which hosted the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the track and field events. It is an amazing structure and one the people here should be proud of. Unfortunately, today the stadium is too expensive to use for team sports so it is used mainly for concerts. Our guide indicated that the swimming cube was being remodeled and might be used for office space or other business related activities or possibly housing.
During our drive around the city as well as our drive in from the port we saw a great deal of construction going on. To give an example they have over five "ring roads" each of which forms concentric circles around the city and are constructed to meet the ever increasing traffic demands of this growing city. A "ring road" is what we would call a circle freeway like in Cincinnati I275.
We returned to the hotel and took a short walk to a pedestrian mall which is know to feature local foods. Here we found scorpions on skewers as well as beetles, pigeons, star fish mixed with a smorgasbord of other raw flesh that was unidentifiable. Very interesting but we decided to retire to our hotel for dinner without indulging in the local fare.
Tomorrow we will meet our guide again and either tour the Great Wall or the Forbidden City depending on weather it rains or not.

Chris - Our drive from the ship to the hotel was very bland and quite boring. I had my camera ever ready to snap an interesting picture out the window ... and I took none. In part it was due to the smog which made viewing difficult, not to mention pictures, and it also was because a good majority of the time we were on a highway and on both sides were newly planted trees, I mean like for 2 hours. Once in Beijing it was obvious that this city is MUCH smaller than Shanghai, despite being the capital, and is an interesting blend of newer buildings and some old areas as well. Even some of the newer buildings have a "Temple" style roof to give it a older look. I enjoyed touring the Olympic sites, although I wish we could have viewed the inside of "The Cube", due to my love of swimming and how closely I follow it. I was struck by how amazingly wide and long the promanade down the center of the Olympic grounds was. It looked like it went on for miles. The facilities were a sight to behold and the Chinese are rightfully very proud of their Olympics.
The MVP of Beijing, so far, is Kim Collins (our travel agent) who booked us at The Grand Hyatt Beijing. What a terrific hotel it is! In addition to the beautiful room and lobby there is a terrific spa and an amazing pool. The pool is made of stone (or has the look of stone), is 50 mteres long and is set in a resort tropical setting. It has a waterfalls and 2 hot tubs nestled into the corners of the pool which is shaped like an oblong donut. There is a waterfalls along the way and in the center of the donut a huge fountain. What a beautiful, lush setting...all 3 floors underground, below the lobby. Good thing as it was about 45 degrees today! I also saw a man getting a manicure on a chaise beside the pool. The water was pretty warm and I enjoyed swimming. The other highlight of the hotel was the complimentary "cocktail hour" which ran for two hours and was more like 5 star eating! Paul found a wine he loved and needless to say we stayed quite a while. Good thing he only had to drive the elevator home!