Hong Kong to Beijing!

            Nothing happened in the morning except for packing, so I will just skip that part…

            I met Liz and Josh for breakfast.  We had a flight that afternoon to get to Beijing so we needed to head out straight after lunch.  They had French fries and ice cream at lunch!!!  I think I missed the last time we had French fries and ice cream, so it was very exciting.

            Anyway, we headed out to get a taxi and got to the airport about an hour before our flight.  I am not sure what was going on because everything was in Chinese, but we waited in line for about 15 minutes later than we should have before they let us on the plane.

            It was the most magical airplane I have even seen in my life.  It was huge and they gave us free food, blankets, TV, movies, music, and games.  I watched a Japanese movie.  It wasn’t very good, but it was still interesting.  At the end of the flight we got disinfected.  When they announced over the speaker that they were going to disinfect the cabin, I thought it was going to be more interesting, but they really just walked down the aisle with spray cans of something.  Then I played Sudoku on the screen for the rest of the flight.  It was definitely my favorite plane flight ever.  I just wish I knew what first class was like…

            We got off the plane, went through immigration, and then took a taxi to the Beijing train station.  We needed to get an overnight train to take us to Shanghai to meet the ship once the transit days were over.  The train station was pretty easy to find due to the giant building and big light up signs.  We were dropped off on the wrong side of the street and we were about to try and run it when Josh pointed out the walking bridge.  So much for not being ignorant Americans.

            The train station was packed, but there was one English speaking window with a short line.  We joined the line and waited.  While in line we met a guy called Lee.  He was a college student studying English and German.  His English was very good and he talked to us for a while and helped us to order our tickets.

            We took a taxi to the hostel.  It dropped us at a fancy hotel…  And then we walked around a dark alley in the back until we found the Zhaolong International Youth Hostel.  We got two rooms.  Josh got a room with a king sized bed and a TV all to himself while Liz and I shared a two twin bed room.  We settled into our rooms and then headed out for dinner.

            We walked down the street to a restaurant called Roasted Duck.  It was pretty late, so there were just a few other tables full when we arrived.  We ordered Peanut Chicken, Sweet and Sour Shrimp, and dumplings from a waiter who didn’t speak English.  He taught us how to say “thank you” and laughed every time we tried to say it.  We stayed there for about an hour before heading back to the hostel for the night.

            The most interesting thing about the hostel was the door locks.  They had room cards which you just swiped over the knob of the door and it opened!  You didn’t have to use a key or put the card in a slot for the door to open.  I thought it was really cool, but I don’t think the others cared near as much as they should have….