Day 1: Flying Shichuan

  
I must admit, I was nervous.  I read the reviews: average food, less than satisfactory inflight entertainment (mostly in Chinese), and flight attendants barely speaking English.  Granted, most of these reviews seemed to be signed Grumpy Yankee or Whinging Pom. Nonetheless, I stepped onto the tarmac with low expectations.
Only to be pleasantly surprised.
Sure, the food was ordinary, but what airplane food isn't? 
The rest was pretty good, ample room, pleasant staff and a row of two to ourselves 😊

The whole thing went smoothly and we arrived at our destination without loosing our passports, or each other.  

We met our tour guide and half the tour group and made our way to the hotel - The China World Hotel.  Apparently the best hotel in Beijing.  
And grand it was!
  

 Chandeliers, wide Titanic like staircases, marble corridors, posh shopping below.  Coffee $14, a bottle of Stump Jump Cab Sav $102...
We settled for the free bottle of water that came with the room 😂

After taking a slow walk down the road to check out the neighbourhood and walk off our dinner, we hit the sack by 8pm.
We were met with shock by our fellow travellers for having ventured outside the hotel and crossing the road all by ourselves! Really??...

I have to talk about breakfast.  Now, I've had my fair share of buffet breakfasts, but this one was by far the best.  The highlight: fried pork dumplings.  I had 8, and planning to at least double that tomorrow morning.  The variety of traditional Chinese dishes like fried rice, noodles, rice puddings etc and Western selections was mind blowing. Jake - only the buffet Christmas lunch in Vegas surpassed the range.  Still, tomorrow I'm only going to have dumplings.
100 of them.
And grapefruit juice.  So delicious.

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