Sunday, May 8, 2011

Susanna's 1st day in China

After 18 hours of travel, finally arrived at Beijing through a connecting flight from Hong Kong. When I was in transit in HK,, it was a special feeling with a lot of sweet memories coming back where I spent my early years in this lovely place. Flying from Hong Kong to Beijing was another 3.5 hours. I was excited when i landed. It was my first time in China, and it felt very good. A very modernized city. Don't see much bicycles on the street, but instead of a lot of cars. Traffic was pretty heavy. I joined the team later in the evening. I ate my 1st meal in China at a restaurant nearby the hotel, serving Hu Nan crusine. They tasted quite rich to me, with some familiar dishes that i had in Toronto before , such as the green onion pancake, Kung Pao Chicken, Mong Shu pork served with a bun.

We then had our group adventure to Carrefour , a French franchaise supermarket in China. It was crowded , and it served a variety of items, from dry food, to fresh food, fruits, meat, fish, candies, to selling quits. I walked from isle to isle, just to have a look what was on the shelves. I picked up some snacks to be used on the bus trip on this morning.

Crossing the streets was another adventure. In here , pedestrians have to be really cautious . I found myself running when i try to crossed, thank God that we were crossing at a group. At one point, we were in the middle of the road where we have to stay close in 1 file, as there were cars on both sides of us, and there were no islands in the middle of the road.

I have a chance to speak Mandarin. As a matter of fact, the locals start conversing with me in Mandarin , expecting that I already know the language. I probably get 70-80% of what they said if they slow down a bit, and can guess what the remaining 20% is. I am able to read and certainly it is handy.

We will go to Shijiazhuang this morning at 10am . It would be 5 hours trip. The time i had at Beijing is too short, and I definitely want to come back to visit.

Heading out to breakfast now..

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