May 15

 I have finally come to the end of a grueling flight.  Somehow
the experience of being confined to a chair for thirteen hours, eating food
that was most likely originally intended for house cats before being
rejected, and trying to ignore the overly intimate couple sitting next to
me has not been a pleasant one.  Never the less there is something to be
gained from this flight; my first taste of a mainly Chinese populous.  Sure
I had met Chinese people before in the past and had even gotten to befriend
a few, but I had never experienced them as a majority, much less myself as
a minority.  The plane is making is final descent and the Beijing
international airport starts to compose itself around me.  In this moment,
my brain fills with the thought “It’s real now”.  Stepping off the plane
and into the airport, I am pleased to find that the signage is written in
both Chinese and English; a trend I hope continues into the next legs of my
travel, though I admit this is probably wishful thinking.  After exchanging
some money and claiming my baggage,  I make my way through the throngs of
people to the Beijing subway.  The subway trip is surprisingly easy and
intuitive.  Much to my regale, the double-signage theme has continued.  Making
my way off of the crowded subway and out of the Wangfujing station, I take
my first breaths of Beijing air and almost immediately become lost.  I try
to ask some locals about the whereabouts of my hotel using my phrasebook,
but it is to little avail.  So I am stuck wandering the Wangfujing drag,
letting my eyes be wistfully distracted by the signs whose population seem
to rival that of the human population: staggering.  But eventually my eyes
do fall upon a travel agency nestled in the corner of a large department
store.  Inside, a man with a fleshy nose and bright eyes enthusiastically
gives me the best directions he can to my hotel.  “Oh!? Park Plaza?!” he
says, in a voice that is almost as jolly as his features “Just continue
down the road and make a right at the next stoplight! or maybe the one
after that… Not sure…”  It was the best set of directions I have gotten so
far, and after thanking him I proceed through the once-translucent,
heavy-plastic flaps that seemed to adorn almost every doorway. After
another fifteen minutes of street searching that mimics my soul searching I
come close enough to use the pictures of the google maps I have saved on my
phone.  After some minor setbacks and confusions with checking in, I make
my way through the ritz-like hotel and nestle in for my first Beijing sleep.