Points from Beijing

1 - Gerry the bellhop, you are hell of sketchy. Offering us a back room, cut out the travel agency tour for about 1/4 the cost? Tracking us down to our hotel hours later that evening, you having made your way out on your bike? Gerry the bellhop, my friend, they teach us from a very young age to be suspicious of people like you

2 - Getting to the airport at 12 am to sleep there for an 8 am flight? Actually worked out kind of well. Took the first shift of "Hey I'll stay up to watch the stuff" until 4, then passed the torch on. Running on about 3 hours of sleep today, and we have a Great Wall tour tomorrow at like 6:45

3 - Beijing itself: yet another Asian city, yet another distinct feel. The mainland is clearly more controlled than HK - there are x-ray machines to get into the subway, cameras and police everywhere. Stayed mostly local today - we were only a small wave in a tide of tourists, so I didn't feel bad about taking pictures of lots of (random) stuff. Had a Peking Duck based dinner (at like 4 - airport screwed up the eating schedule) which was delicious. Proceeded to walk around downtown (?) Beijing which struck me like the 3rd street promenade down in Santa Monica. Streets closed to traffic, people milling about, people buying stuff. Didn't eat scorpions or other bugs today, but had this sugared apple thing which was fairly tasty. Have yet to buy cheap Olympic crap, but I went into a Li Ning store today and it ruled.

Must sleep, more later