Ni' Hao from Beijing!

Let me preface this post by saying the Beijing is beautiful. The city is clean and vibrant, everything I thought it would be. It strikes a cord deep within me to know that I am in my daughter's homeland and that she is here, we will meet just a couple of days from now.
Now lets get to the travel part.....It was a complete nightmare....It started out pretty uneventful. We got to the airport on time, checked our luggage and got to our gate with time to spare. Finally they start boarding for our flight, we get on the plane and settle in for a 4 hour flight to LA. After 20 minutes, the stewardess gets on the intercom and said there was an issue with the plane, it had a fuel leak(eek!)...They would try to fix it, but chances are that this flight would be cancelled and we would have to take a later flight. So after another 20 minutes, she comes back on and says they will have to cancel the flight. Thing is, the next flight they had to LA left 3 HOURS LATER, meaning that we would miss our connecting flight with China Southern. Wonderful, Great, Just PERFECT!! Thank goodness the guy at the desk was able to get us seats on a Air China leaving out of LA at 1:40am. We just made that flight, UGH!! It was packed and no room to spread out. OH and did I mention that we had to pay for those extra seats and we will not get refunded the price of the tickets for the flight we missed, even though it was no fault of our own. So now we are out $3,000 Nice!
However, I am greatful they found the fuel leak BEFORE we took off, I do not want to imagine what might have happened had they not....that is too scary.. Also the, Air China flight got us here 3 hours sooner and it was a direct flight to Beijing. Our wonderful guide met us at the airport at 5:40am when our plane got in...what an angel! We are in our hotel room now, weary and looking like something the cat dragged in. Not a pretty site...but ever so grateful TOO be here......will post more omorrow after we do the tourist thing.....The first few pics are of our hote, they others are just random shots of the city .
Bye for now!!! Peace and Love!