I hope we've filled our interesting metro experiences quota for today.

Finally we decide to take the trek into town and explore Beijing.  It takes approximately 45 minutes to get to Tiananman Square which is much better than I anticipated.

First off, as expected its sweltering hot in the subway cars but no Chinese are perspiring.  Except for one.  This young woman had a few beads of sweat on her forehead and both Nisse and I are relieved that SOMEONE is like us.  All of a sudden she is crouching in the middle of the subway hurling into a CLEAR plastic bag - the evidence is very visible.  Chunky and very visible. Yeah so she's not like us; she's ill and probably infecting the rest of us with her airborne sickness.  We were standing right beside her and were not getting off for another 10 minutes.

Thursday, August 26 - D-Day

On the plane....bout 5 hours in

5:56 pm (Vancouver time) 

On this the day of birthday boxing, Liz and I have started our long awaited journey to the Mother Land (Well only my mother land...) We are approximately 5 and a half hours into the 11 hour and 23 minute flight. We have been keeping busy with cat naps and cookies (thanks Kati). We have already practiced our chopstick skills with our pasta and mushroom chicken lunch and practiced Mandarin from Lonely Planet Beijing- THEY’RE NOT GONNA KNOW WHAT HIT EM’!