Monday, May 27, 2019: Day 1: Beijing Arrival and hotel check in

We arrived in Beijing pretty much on time. We went through Immigration, collected our luggage, went through Customs and found the Viking agent at the exit. We waited for several others to arrive before heading to the hotel. It was about an hour's drive. Our Chinese guide, Ray, said Dave and Diane arrived about an hour before we did.

The room is nice. We are on the ninth floor. David and Diane are on ten. The weather in Beijing is mild and the pollution not bad at all...yet. We have masks  but hopefully we will not need them.

View from our window

On the way to dinner

There is nothing on the agenda for the rest of today. Dinner is up to us. Based upon Diane's research, we went to a local restaurant, the Small Pear, and had a nice meal of shared salad, shrimp, pork and Jasmine tea. Essentially a tapas affair and it was very tasty.

We meet at 0800 hours tomorrow morning after breakfast to begin the day's activities.