The+Water+Cube

= The Water Cube  =

The train today was delightful. We got a little snack bag w nuts, mints, a fruit ball, and a little bit of duck stomach jerky. Just your basic travel fare! We were also able to buy cokes and other snacks.

So this is the modern Nanjing South Train Station - I'm keeping it dark because of the beautiful architecture, but if you look close you can see Kristen in the forefront with her three matching Le Sport Sac bags!

Quite nice to relax for 4 hours after the hectic pace. A little napping, window gazing, conversation, and computer work.

We find it amazing that these porters pack 6-7 huge suitcases on a little dolly and then take them on the escalator! The train stations seem determined to send travelers up the escalator, down the hall, down the escalator, across the corridor, and then repeat. We left the station after meeting our tour guide, and ended up walking half a mile (with suitcases) to our bus, which we boarded and then rode back through the train station.

Beijing is also very modern. Our guide commented that they tore down many houses to make room for the modern buildings. Our guide is very honest. He explained that before 1980, people were very simple and thought very simply, but now life is complicated and so is thinking.

No coffee all day - so the first thing Kristen and I did was drop our bags and head across the street to Mojito Coffee.

Here is the group at the Jingshi Hotel in Beijing - the manager in the center by Amy is a Fullerton alum.



So this is he Dragon Hotel - the Olympic Hotel is now 7 star and very expensive - S10,000 USD/night! They say Bill Gates stayed here for 6 months. The head (on the left) is shaped like a dragon's head - and then the smaller buildings are the body and tail.



We headed over to the Olympic Park to see the Water Cube and the Birds Nest:



Close up of the Bird's Next and below is inside.

Here we are clowning around and "swimming" in front of the Water Cube. Ran out of time so we couldn't go inside. Bummer!