Today is Wednesday, but the last time I slept in a bed was on Sunday night. From 10PM Monday until today around noon, I was in airplanes or airports, flying from Boston nonstop to Hong Kong, and then onto Beijing. Cathay Pacific's direct route is good, if you don't like layovers, but it's very hard being contained in a very small seat in an enormous plane for over 15 hours. And then add on another 3+ hours to fly from HK to Beijing. But I am here now; I made it!

     Just looking out the airport windows at Hong Kong was lovely; mountains and the South China Sea are everywhere out there. One pointy mountain literally stood head and shoulders above the others; I asked airline people what its name was, and at first they looked at each other nonverbally saying, "What mountain?"  But their focus is always into the airport gate, not outside the windows, so perhaps this is forgivable. When they finally looked at it, they were pretty sure it is called Castle Mountain, so I looked again more carefully--once the clouds had opened up a bit--and saw that there is indeed a castle on its pointy top! Maybe I can climb that mountain when we come back, or at least I will try to find out if the castle is still inhabited, or whether it has become a hotel, or condos, or what its story is, and if there are trails winding their ways to the summit.

     Landing in Beijing was wonderful. Even though there were hundreds upon hundreds of people lined up at Customs, the lines moved pretty quickly. No hassles at all, nor any at the baggage claim, or exiting. And there was Feng or Johnny, our Program Director on this trip, with his Overseas Adventure Travel sign! And ten more people who had just come from the Mongolia pretrip had arrived almost at the same time as I did, so I it turned out that I wasn't going to have to spend the rest of the whole day alone.

     Beijing is rather beautiful. Flowers, roses mostly, are blooming all along the highways; everything looks well cared for, vibrant, busy, but peaceful. At our hotel we quickly unpacked a bit, and then met Johnny for an orientation walk around this part of Beijing. We walked down an alleyway where there is a market each morning, being careful to stay to the side as bicycles and motorcycles zoomed past us; we walked on the crowded main street seeing many businesses that are from America; we walked past several little restaurants where Johnny pointed out where we could buy various meals, but the most interesting store that we visited was an herbal pharmacy. Inside they would not allow photographs, but we could watch them cutting herbs and preparing people's medicines to take as teas. This is very close to my heart! It smelled wonderful in that store. At least 40 or 50 doctors or herbalists work there; this is the medicine of China.

    And then five of us adventurous souls took the subway to the Lamma Temple, Yong He Gong; we all wanted to start exploring immediately and this temple was recommended by our guide and my daughter, so I had to go. As I walked through the temples, lighting sticks of incense along the way, it reminded me very much of my time in Thailand, and visiting as many wats there as I possibly could. This afternoon was a gift: sunny, warm, traveling with new friends, being surrounded by the holiness of Asian temples again. My introduction to China has been a delight.