Ding Ding DING...Beijing!!

Our non-stop flight to Beijing went about as well as it could, with some decent inflight meals and movies to pass the time on the 13-hour flight.  We even caught a few Zzzz's.

Through customs without a hitch, we picked up our luggage and proceeded through the modern airport to meet our guide, Yuan.  About half of our tour group had flown in from LAX with us, and the rest arrived from New York about twenty minutes later.  When all were present and accounted for, we were off like a flock of turtles to board our bus.

The pollution stung the back of my throat as soon as we walked outside, but driving through Beijing's illuminated skyline, we were definitely impressed.

From the freeway, there were sleek, modern, artistically-lit buildings in every direction, and I had the distinct feeling this could easily be a projection of the future.

About an hour later we arrived at our hotel for the next three nights, the Mercure, an aging but attractive 4-star low-rise property on the outskirts of Beijing.  We had left Redondo Beach around 11 AM Pacific Standard Time to catch the 232 bus to LAX, and now it was about 9 PM the next day in a time zone separated by fifteen hours from home, so Julie and I were ready to get our room keys and go to bed, but some others were ready to go take a taxi to a shopping mall or possibly to one of the local restaurants behind the hotel for dinner.  Our room was modern, immaculate and well-stocked with thoughtful complimentary items like two bottles of water, combs, toothpaste/brush sets and standard toiletries.

At 6 AM the next morning, the wake-up call came as Yuan promised, and we followed the schedule to go to the included hot buffet breakfast downstairs at 6:30 AM.

Both traditional American choices like eggs, extra crispy bacon and hash browns as well as distinctly Chinese offerings were spread out for our dining pleasure.

There was also great make-it-yourself cappuccino or what I found to be much less palatable brewed coffee.  Three or four espressos with steamed cream, and I was good to go each day.  

This became the template for our trip, and it made a great start for the day, but on this morning, instead of boarding the bus by 7:30 AM, we had a brief meeting where we introduced ourselves and summarized any travel experience including other trips we'd taken with Gate 1.  

No one can say that Gate 1 does not live up to their promise of "More of the World for Less."  As Yuan said, it doesn't only mean less money, it also might feel like less sleep, but you can sleep when you get home.

Shortly, we were on board our bus driving through Beijing's crazy traffic.  Yuan decided to re-arrange the scheduled itinerary to stop first at the Beijing Zoo to see the giant pandas during their most active time of day.


Wild pandas live exclusively in the wilderness of Central China, mostly in Sichuan.

There are now only about 1600 pandas in the wild plus another 300 in captivity.

They don't tend to breed for a number of reasons, including the fact that they must eat about 14 hours a day to ingest their usual 30 pounds of bamboo a day required since evolving from being meat-eaters two million years ago.  They can only digest about 17% of the bamboo they eat.

While they're large as adults, baby pandas weigh only about 6 ounces and are 6 inches long at birth.

These tiny pink infants (their signature black and white color takes a few weeks to grow in) require constant care from their mothers, but unfortunately the tiny creatures are sometimes accidentally crushed by mom, who might weigh as much as 300 pounds and could easily lose track of the tiny tot.  Fortunately, within a year, baby pandas grow to about 75 pounds, though they're dependent on mom for another couple of years.

The Chinese government used to occasionally give pandas as diplomatic gifts to world leaders like US President Richard Nixon, who opened the way for trade with China, but no more.  China only loans pandas to foreign countries now, protecting their exclusive claim to these cuddly-looking black and white beasts.

I wonder how this country famous for creating knock-offs of products, infringing on copyrights, trademarks and patents, would respond if enterprising scientists cloned giant pandas in other countries?

There probably is much more to see at the Beijing Zoo, but after a one hour stop for the signature highlight, we were off to a jade shop to see how this precious stone so important to China is shaped into beautiful jewelry and objets d'art.  I was disappointed to see that the workers used electric Dremel Rotary Tools rather than ancient chisels, files and rasps.

Still, it is intricate artistry.

While Julie and I generally want to extricate ourselves from these shopping stops as quickly as possible, any excursion group will include a few big shoppers, and sure enough, our group had several, which I'm sure puts smiles on the faces of shop owners as well as the tour guides, who I assume receive a small piece of the action.

Pouters on the bus be damned, some people are going to wheel and deal until five to fifteen minutes after the scheduled departure time at every stop, and then some will decide they need to have one more bathroom stop before heading out, so if you're on a tour, you might as well simply expect and accept it rather than be upset every time.

As we rode through what was often sluggish traffic, Yuan shared narratives about his country between stops, often answering questions that branched far off whatever his original topic happened to be, and our excellent drivers always knew exactly how to get where we were going and park there, so it is much more pleasant than driving around on your own through foreign city traffic jams.

The next stop was what Yuan said was a farmer's restaurant, which wasn't much to look at from the outside but had the best food of the trip.

With Gate 1, you don't get restaurants with curb appeal as a general rule, but the guides, who apparently have some leeway on where they take you on any given tour, choose places locals would go
for delicious food.

Our son Jay had told us that when being shown around China by his Chinese-national friend Jimmy Zi Wang that there had been enormous meals with course after course, and that is exactly what most  of Gate 1's included meals proved to be.

Servers would set family-style dishes on a large lazy Susan, and we would slowly spin it around to share the broad selection of foods among the eight diners at each table.

The fish head on the plate the first day seemed to put others off what proved to be one of the best dishes, but by the end of the trip, everyone seemed to get used to that sight, though even by the last day, no one was ready for a chicken head or chicken feet on a platter.

When we didn't eat all of the dishes fast enough to be cleared by the server, new dishes would be piled on top of the old: fish, white rice, broccoli, kung pao chicken, eggplant, smoked duck, fried rice, cabbage, fried chicken, corn, beef chow mein, sweet and sour pork and on and on.  To drink, we could choose from sodas, beer or bottled water.

This was the pattern for most meals on our tour, with flavors and ingredients changing to reveal specialties of assorted regions.

By the time we finished this feast, our full stomachs made us as sleepy as giant pandas after digesting their maximum daily intake of 80 pounds of bamboo shoots, but the main event of the day was yet to come: climbing the Great Wall of China.