Hello, Beijing

City scenes from Beijing.

By Cindy DeLong
UNL Graduate Student

City scenes from Beijing.

We arrived in Beijing and finally made it to our hotel by 5 Thursday evening. 

Dr. Crews, Amanda and I all left home early-early on Wednesday to catch 6 a.m. flights to Chicago. From there we flew direct to Beijing Capital International Airport. We survived the 13 hour trip (as did our luggage YAY!), made it through immigration and customs only to have to BEG a taxi driver to try to fit all of our luggage (and us of course) into one cab so we only had to take one taxi to the hotel. 

Finally SUCCESS and we were on our way.  One of the first things we noticed about Beijing was the drab skies. It wasn't overcast, it was smog. 

The  cab driver didn't understand English and we didn't understand Chinese. I had (smartly I thought) put a document on my iPad listing each of our hotels, their phone numbers and addresses. When I showed this to him it was useless -- it was not in Chinese characters and the phone number was for calling from the U.S. 

OK...

Dr. Crews thought to pull out her guidebook that had the hotel listed and a Chinese address and a phone number the driver could use. Eventually he got us there. 

Note to self: ALWAYS carry destination information in Chinese characters.

The first thing we did at the hotel was to get a card with the hotel name, address, phone, and map in Chinese. Don't leave the hotel without it!

A pedicab driver waits for a fare.

Cindy DeLong is working on a master's degree in textile history with an emphasis in quilt studies at UNL. She has a bachelor of sciences in home economics (clothing and textiles) and journalism from the University of Missouri. She has worked at the New England Quilt Museum as a curatorial intern and the International Quilt Study Center & Museum as a collections intern.