Arrived in Beijing at 3 pm. First thing was to go to an ATM and book train tickets back to Quingdao. This is what made mom nervous....the ship was at sea for 2 days to get from Hong Kong to Quindao. Public transportation seemed really efficient. They went to their hostel and it was the wrong one, but they were able to stay there. Can you believe, the Chinese people did not strike her as extremely short. They ran into some art students from a prestigious art univ...

I am going to shorten the very legnthy journal we got about Hong Kong and China. This was the "best", again. Clearing customs was a breeze. All six of them got off the ship and sent directly to the train station to get tickets to Beijing. Initailly they had problems but worked it out to get a 25 hour train ride to Beijing for $79, unlike the several hundred dollars it would have cost to get an airplane. Nice to try another mode of transportaion and view...

I’m still taking my malaria pills and will continue to take them until 7 days after China. I’m all caught up with my journals…they’re attached to this email. Can’t wait for China and then Japan! I’m starting to get excited for Japan because I’m going to go to Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Mt. Fuji. I’m pretty sure that Mt. Fuji is going to be breathtaking! I wish we were going in July during the official climbing season. A...