First Day in China

Image via WikipediaWell, my first day in China has been a very full one. My friends and I arrived at Beijing's new international airport around 6am in the morning after a very long flight. It was amazingly easy getting through the border, getting our bags and then going through customs.

Our first difficulty of the day though was when we got to get taxis to our hotel. Since there's five of us, there was this middle-aged guy from Los Angeles that asked if we wanted to share a cab into town. Thinking that this would be a good way to save on the fare I agreed to ride with him while the others got into two other cabs. I think I would have preferred not to ride with this guy. An obnoxious kind of creep, he got upset with the cab driver for not understanding English as he tried to explain that he was going to a different hotel and trying to make sure that the driver understood where it was. Even though the cab drivers charged us far more than normal for the ride (170RMB per cab), I would have been okay paying that alone to not have to had dealt with this guy (who also argued vehemently about his half of the price).

Anyways, once inside the hotel things greatly improved as we were allowed to check into our rooms, get cleaned up, and make it to the buffet breakfast. We met up with two other students who had arrived the day before and after breakfast all took a walk down to the Temple of Heaven. As we watched traffic move about it seemed a little more chaotic than in the US, but not at all like what we were led to believe. There are plenty of crossing lights and the traffic obeys the lights.

The Temple of Heaven sits on a massive garden including rose gardens and a variety of temples. There were a variety of activities taking place. Many people were out dancing in various styles to different music. Some people were playing hackey sack, but with a rubber circle attached to some feathers. We even took part in some of the fun. The temple itself was very beautiful with swallows darting in and out of the windows. Once we had our fill, we walked over to the Pearl Market so one of my friends could purchase pearls for the women in his life.

By this time it was around 1pm and we were getting hungry. We stopped briefly at the hotel before heading out to the Hutai back lakes, an active bar and restaurant scene. We had a late (and very spicy) lunch along the lake before taking a walk around the lake. As we passed bars, people would come out and try to entice us to enter the bars offering rooftop seating and happy hour specials. By playing different bars off of each other we were able to get a deal on beers at one bar. While enjoying our beers another friend from the class who had been in town for a week joined us.

After another bar, the friends I had flown over with were tired and ready to sleep. However, I wanted to keep going, so the guy who had been here for a week took us to the embassy district which has many businesses that cater to expatriates. We had some wonderful pizzas in a hole-in-the-wall place called "The Tree" followed by drinks at a bar called "The Kokomo". I hadn't even had a chance to finish my drink when the other guys came over to me saying that there were a group of local English teachers that wanted us to join them at yet another bar/club. After some searching around and some failed attempts we got drinks at a place whose name I don't even remember.

By about 1:30am I was ready to call it a day. One of my friends and I got a cab back to the hotel where I instantly passed out. Not bad for a first day in China.

Air Travel

Well, it was a mad dash day of packing, printing business cards, and getting to the airport. I kissed my beautiful girlfriend goodbye and began the torturous endeavor known as modern air travel. Denver to LA wasn't bad, it was when me and the other four classmates that I was traveling with got to the Air China ticket desk at LAX.

It was at this point that we learned of the difficulty in translating the e-tickets we had purchased through an American travel agent with the paper tickets that Air China still seems to be using. It was here that I noted my first surprise - not that the process was much more chaotic than the United ticket desk I had been at only hours before - but what they told us was a small problem took close to an hour to resolve. During that time I noticed something interesting as I was watching one of the ticket agents with our itineraries (just having our confirmation number wasn't enough). I noticed a man hand the ticket agent a stack of dollars, which the agent immediately placed in his jacket pocket. The agent then filled out a paper ticket for the man, wrote $110 on the boarding pass, and handed it to the man.

It just seemed so sketchy at the time as there was no cash register; no printed receipt; just a wad of bills in the agent's pocket. Something tells me I'll me seeing more of this type of behavior over the next two weeks.

Fortunately the flight was smooth and without any difficulties. Aside from spending 12 hours in a plane, it really wasn't bad at all. We arrived at the new China airport and were instantly amazed at the size of it. Here are some photos:

Leaving for China

Well, I'm getting on a plane and flying off to China today. I'll be there for two weeks starting in Beijing, going to Guilin, then Shanghai and finally Hong Kong. The first three cities will be part of a comparative markets class that I've been taking this quarter. We will be going to different businesses and comparing how they do business with how business is done in the US. After that we'll me and a few friends will be going on to Hong Kong to explore the city on our own.

I'll be doing my best to upload images and the days events to this site so that everyone who wants to can follow along. I've added weather to the side panel and my schedule is down at the bottom. Please feel free to log in and add comments with suggestions on where to go or what to do. Thank you.

Bridal Veil Falls

Over the weekend I took a camping trip with my girlfriend, her sister, and brother in-law up to Bridal Veil Falls in Rocky Mountain National Park. We left on Saturday morning meeting in Estes Park and having lunch at Sweet Basilico Cafe. It was a beautiful weekend and two wonderful days to be up in the mountains.

After a short hike by a group of deer we set up camp near a rock formation that looked like a pair of rabbit ears. We then continued on to Bridal Veil Falls. It was a good hike which left us all ready to get back for dinner and s'mores. We had a fun dinner of macaroni and cheese along with a boxed wine that our local wine merchant recommended.

After dinner, s'mores, and a few games of Uno we were ready for bed. It was a cold night (40F), but at least it didn't rain. The next morning we woke up, made oatmeal with peanut butter and honey, and packed up camp. After a short hike back out we were down the road. It wasn't until after a walk around Estes Park, lunch, a stop in Boulder for a nap along Boulder creek, and margaritas out in the sun that we got home.


All in all it was a fun weekend up in the mountains.

Bolder Boulder 2008

On Memorial Day, my girlfriend Erin and I met with her sister, brother-in-law, and two other friends to take part in the Bolder Boulder. We had planned it out a month before deciding we we go as a group and have matching hats. We decorated each hat with our own personalized badge.

Since it was a 10K competition (6.2 miles) we each took a mile that we would be the leader for. For an entire mile, the mile leader could tell the others what we would do. Some leaders made people join hands and skip; some had us spin around; I had everyone pose in front of some flowers (they decided on the silly poses).

We were in a walk/jog group so the whole thing took us about 100 minutes and we had a wonderful time enjoying all the musicians and performers along the route. All in all it was a very fun day that I was glad to take part in.

Motorcycle Ride

Erin and I were finally able to take the motorcycle out for a ride with our friends Brian and Cassie the other weekend. It was nice to get back on my Honda Shadow Sabre 1100VT and Erin enjoyed riding on the back. The only problem was that it’s still too cold for riding and the wind was cutting right through us. After riding out to Morrison and stopping for lunch we decided that it was time to head back home. I can’t wait for it to get warmer for more riding!

Spring Break

For Spring Break I flew out with my girlfriend, Erin, to California to get my stuff and move it out to Colorado. Flying out was generally difficult as we had to wait in Denver while the plane was delayed and then the wings were defrosted. This caused us to miss our connecting flight in Las Vegas so we had to wait for a shuttle over to the hotel that the airline booked for us. After a nice night's sleep we were waiting once again for our flight to California.

Once in my hometown of Tulare, CA we enjoyed the sun and warm weather. It was great spending time with my family and friends. Erin enjoyed eating duck for the first time while I enjoyed playing guitar hero. The next day we loaded up a U-Haul truck with some furniture and my motorcycle and were soon on the road to Las Vegas.

Las Vegas was a blast as usual. We started off with some all-you-can eat sushi followed by tall drinks from Fat Tuesdays and a wonderful walk down the strip. It was great to see the Bellagio fountain, Caesar's Palace, and the Venetian. The next day we had time to see the lions at Luxor and ride the roller coaster at New York, New York. It was soon time to hit the road onto our next destination though.

Late that night we made it into Springdale, UT just outside Zion National Park. We got there just in time to check into our room and enjoy a wonderful pasta dinner. The next morning we were able to take a nice hike in Zion before continuing on the longest leg of our trip.

We ended up that night in the relaxing hot springs of Glenwood Springs, CO. It was a nice end to a long and stressful day of driving as we sat in the hot pool, steam rising up into the moonlit night.

The next day found us back in Denver, unloading into my new apartment. What a great trip.