We arrived safely in Beijing on Sunday around 3:00 PM, and made it through the many levels of border screening without much difficulty. I must admit, I felt apprehensive during the medical screening. When departing from DC, the airlines warned all passengers that any elevated temperature, even by less than one degree, or any cold or flu symptoms, would result in the passenger being placed in quarantine for seven days upon arrival. When we arrived at the gate in Beijing, the pilot made an announcement that passengers could not leave their seats. Government officials, wearing white lab coats and face masks, came onto the plane and briefly examined each passenger for signs of flu, including using handheld devices to scan for an elevated temperature. More information about the flight in a later posting.
We arrived at our hotel, the Crown Plaza Beijing, at around 5:30 PM. Despite being a Holiday Inn property, the hotel is quite upscale: marble and granite throughout the lobby, indoor pond, glass elevators, and fine dining. The rooms include real wood paneling, a decent-size flat-screen TV, and a down comforter on the bed. More information about the our Beijing hotel in a future posting.
"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." Turns out, China blocks a number of blog sites, including Google's Blogspot. So, a monkey wrench in my plans to easily blog from China. I'm working up plans for an alternative. One option includes sending posts by email -- hence, this posting. One problem with this technique -- I won't know if it gets posted. Would someone kindly send me an email letting me know that this message got posted (chris.langello@gsa.gov). Another problem: sending posts by email might not allow me to post photos. Like I mentioned, I'm developing a plan, but I haven't locked in on any alternative yet. If anyone has a suggestion, please let me know (by email, not a posting, because I can't access my blog!).
Until then, thanks for checking in. I hope to have some interesting information soon. Warm regards from China, Chris
Chris Langello
http://www.google.com/profiles/chris.langello
http://chris-langello.blogspot.com/
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment