Saturday, August 26, 2006

Here We Are

Well I made to Beijing..too bad my luggage hasn't yet. Seems like American Airlines decided that I could wait a day or two. Promise is it will arrive tonight via Tokyo on the same flight I did last nite. I got here about 1030 pm local and I was off by twelve hours on the time difference. In the last post I said 24 hours difference between Altanta and Beijing. I didn't note the AM/PM thing. Actually only 12 hours earlier here.
To add insult to injury I got up this morning and tried to shoot some pics from the hotel window and the Nikon 5700 is on the fritz. Pictures are all blurry and looking through the viewfinder you get all kinds of wiggly lines and a green shimmer. Crap. Going to venture out and see what I can do about it. Travel half way around the world and your thousand dollar digital camera calls it quits. Not an auspicious start so far. If I can't get it fixed quick then I guess I am going to get another digital camera(though cheaper) and I will have one of Madam's Christmas presents early ;-). Just kidding lady.
Good news is that the hotel the client's travel agency booked me into is posh. Shangri-la China World right in the middle of things. The room is on the Horizon level (18th floor) and has every amenity. One of the nicer hotel rooms I've seen in a while. Then again it is costing 1,500 RMB a day which is pretty pricey(divide by 7.8 for US$).
Ok off to see what I can do about photography and getting at least some sights in. It's hot here and I hesitate to get the only clothes I have all sweaty and dirty but I probably won't be back here anytime soon so I gotta get what I can. I'll bet on getting my suitcase tonight.
I did venture downstairs to see what shopping is available in the hotel and it is very high end. Hermes, Van Cleef, Armani, Dior etc. Probably not any emergency Dockers and golf shirts to be had....we'll see.
Later.

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