Ni Hao from Beijing

[NewJeffCT]

Weather is fine and it's exactly a 12 hour time difference from EST. My hotel does have CNN International, which is at least a way to keep up with the news, though the headline story was centered around Hong Kong - China relations, though they did get pretty in depth about conflicting casualty reports from Iraq, giving pretty good play to US troops killing civilians milling around a Bradley that had been abandoned. Nothing at all on the US election so far that I've seen.

Surprising thing so far is that every street sign is in both English & Chinese, as is a majority of the business places - even in places that don't exactly look like high volume tourist destinations. So far, the people have been very friendly and I met some relatives that just bought a new Buick (buying American products! - Attention US automakers, while the Chinese happily suck up Japanese investment money, they don't like Japanese...)

Visited the Forbidden City & Tiananmen Square today and will climb the Great Wall tomorrow. Had Starbucks coffee in the Forbidden City - the Chinese version of the coffee still tastes like battery acid. I'd kill for a Dunkin Donuts.

now to catch up on the news.

[Quetzal]

1. What are they saying about North Korea?

[NewJeffCT]

2. only thing I heard on CNN International

was that some British expert said it was not a nuclear explosion... I've missed 95% of the news the past 3 days, though. We flew out of CT on Saturday morning, then to Cincy then to LAX then to Shanghai and then to Beijing, getting here in the wee hours of the morning on Monday. So, I've missed most of the news.

[Quetzal]

3. Yikes, what a long flight

I fly back to Hawaii this Saturday - I'm in NYC right now.

[On the Road]

4. Hi NewJeff

I'm interested in your observations. Keep us posted. Don't forget to get off the beaten track.

I know a lot of Chinese people and have been dying to visit for a while now. Where else are you going besides Beijing?

[NewJeffCT]

6. after Beijing...

After going to Beijing, we're going to Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi and then Shanghai. After a day in Shanghai, we're going to visit my in-laws in Nanjing, the city that was the capital prior to the Communists taking over.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. Starbuck's in the Forbidden City??!!

Unbelievable.

When I was there in 1990, the only fast food in Beijing was one large KFC outlet. There was NO fast food or other Western chains anywhere else.

By the way, if you're hankering for Dunkin' Donuts, I can't help you there, but there are Mr. Donuts all over Japan, if you'll be stopping off on the way back. :-)