ROHILAS IN CHINA

May 23 – June 10, 2010

CHINA 01: BEIJING


May 24

After 12-hour flight by Air China from San Francisco, we reached Beijing around 5:30 p.m., on Monday, May 24, for our 19-day sightseeing trip organized by China Focus, a California-based tour operator.

At the airport, we met other six members of our group. We were greeted by our local guide, Ann, 55, who had survived hardships of service on rural farms by eating raw sweet-potatoes, during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). Now, the wife of a military physician, and mother of a son who is pursuing college studies in the United States, she works as travel guide.

We went straight to Chan An Grand, our 5-star hotel.

Beijing was much different than what I had seen during my 1982 visit. We did not have to walk on the tarmac deplane or board the airplane this time. The airplane as well as the airport was quite big and compared well with any modern airport around the world.

Unlike in 1982, I did not see hordes of bicycles on the roads. Instead they were jammed with cars and other automobiles.

Roads and flyovers have been modernized.

And they were lined with multistory commercial and residential buildings.