Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Our package was picked up at 4:59 p.m. in Alexandria, VA.  It left the airpark in Ohio for Beijing at 6:19 p.m. (6:19 this morning in Beijing).  The DHL counter here at the hotel gets deliveries at about 10:00 a.m. each day.  Our appointment is tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m.  DHL online says our package is inthe air now.  DHL China says it will be delivered tomorrow afternoon.  Our guide will be here at 8:30 tomorrow morning so we can check on it together.

I'm trying to arrange another hotel and have asked a woman in the ex-patriate community for help finding one that is safe and clean.  No luck reaching her cell phone, though, and at home the phone just rings, so I'll use her email again to see if I got the numbers wrong.

We walked to a little store in the morning for fruit and drinks.  Leaving the hotel is problematic right now because the hotel is hosting an economic summit for Asian and European leaders.  We have to pass through airport security to come and go with scanners, etc.  The staircase and garden are closed and there are police and secret service types everywhere.