First Night-- having trouble with pictures, more of those later

5/15/08 9:12pm Beijing time, Yu Yang Hotel Lobby

At long last, I made it to the hotel. I had to pay 800 kuai extra to get here by taxi, which I intend to make Northwest pay for. I tried to calculate the entire travel time… I got around 35 hours. About 20 of that was on a plane. Otherwise, the rerouting of my flight had mostly positive consequences. I got to see Amsterdam. I got a great seat on the flight out of Holland. And apparently, having seen the marathon site had taken some of the anticipation out of it for the people who were here on time. So despite the inconveniences, I really came out on top.

In my Dale Carnegie coach training session I learned of Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch who recently retired and was invited to do the traditional "final lecture," whereby the retiring professor delivers that "lecture he had always wanted to give." If I remember right he was quoting someone else, but nonetheless made this point:

Experience is what you get when you don't get what you expected.

That has really rang true so far, just in the first 48 hours of these next two weeks.

I haven't yet witnessed the crowds I've been told about in China. I haven't seen any more people on the street at once than in any other city I've been to. But the sheer volume of infrastructure, the endless copses and outcroppings of high rise residential buildings amid towers donning corporate logos, is tremendous. Its really like visiting a city on another planet with a much older intelligent species that has already had to deal with swelling populations. Everything is just so big.

Ironically, I read in my Fodor's guide to China that the Chinese government has spent a lot of money over the years trying to scientifically prove that Chinese are a separate species from homo sapien, that Chinese ancestry only goes back to China, and not Africa.

For your amusement, some instructions from the hotel guest guide. All errors are as published:

"Activities such as prostitution, go whoring, gambling or drug addition [sic] etc. in violation of Chinese laws are prohibited in the hotel. "

"For you safety, Please do not contact with the stranger. "

"For your safety, please slam your door at a moment."

And the best of all, an ad for the "Bright Spring Day" Night Club, cause everyone loves to go out on a bright spring day, you're sure to be afforded "imperial enjoyment and noble taste by our delicate services."