Woah!

I believe anything I say may be a poor description of my first day in Beijing. I could write a short story based on one single day.
     Get off the plane.
     Walk a half mile through airport. (No one says a word during the walk.)
     Get to the visa check point.
     Didn't get arrested.
     Went thru customs...didn't get arrested.
   
     Now we emerge into the passenger pickup area where Chelsea and Theresa are meeting us. We find them holding a sign:

     Don't look at my hair.
     SO...outside we go. 
Now...let me tell you... They say smell will bring forth the strongest emotions and memories we have. That being the case...I will never forget China.
If only I could transport your nose to our location. The smells are plentiful......and......unpleasant. Sewage smell is everywhere.     The first thing I see are hundreds of Chinese people crowding to get taxis. Chinese men smoking in large groups right around the exits. The air is thick. We try for a good while to get a taxi. They don't want to take us! I don't know if it is because we are so close to the airport (they get paid by distance instead of time) or because we are foreigners or they may not know where we were talking about.  Our driver drove like a madman (I liked it). When we got to the apartment he tried to charge us 100 yuan for the ride when it was only 63 yuan. Chelsea argued with him and we only paid the 63. He tried to tell her we had to pay his trip back to the airport. Right. Stupid (tai chunle).
     Sleep came easy and then our first day started.
     We had to exchange our money. The banks are run like the DMV. You get a number and sit. That took about an hour. It was a strange feeling in there.
     Then we were off to Wudaoying Hutong. Hutongs are hard to explain. They are like retail alleyways. The only thing to way to explain is thru pictures and video. Go to this link to get a better idea: Definition of Hutong

 Entrance to Argo Greek Restaurant

     We went to a wonderful Greek restaurant on the Hutong.

The ZIGZAG salon

Then we had a massage. That was so nice! We will try to go every day. It was only 118 yuan. (about 20 bucks). We laughed trying to figure out how to put on the pajama like pants they gave us to wear.   

We went to eat again. We went to the Lido area. It is a foreign area so it has more things familiar to us. It was more modern and clean than the other areas. We ate at Ganges. It is an Indian restaurant. It was good.
We ended our day at the grocery store. That was pretty cool too. I will get pictures for you.