Day 1: Travel to Beijing

After final exams, graduation, and packing up my entire house, it was time for the trip of a lifetime; Around the world in 30 days. The trip started with a great breakfast in the Amex Lounge before our flight from SFO to PEK. We both love good food so expect many restaurant pictures.

Aside from the horrible United plane and service (which I will talk about in a separate post), the flight was easy. We tried to nap on the plane and stay up as long as possible to beat the jet lag. Since the WIFI and in-flight entertainment was broken, I relied heavily on my downloaded Netflix shows. Four hours into the flight, I was surprised to find out that I had sleepily downloaded "The Sniffers" instead of "The Snipers" TV series. This new show is about a man that solves crimes by literally sniffing around. Also, it is all in Russian (with only English subtitles).

After landing in PEK, we made it through immigration with no problems and headed to our hotel in the city of Beijing.

After checking into a great high-tech room, we headed out to explore the city. We traveled by rickshaw around the downtown area (which is an adventure in itself). I quickly learned that the only rule that matters when driving in China is: you either go or get the hell out of the way. We stopped near SOHO to grab dinner, check out the stores, and explore the night life. As you can see in the pictures below, we checked out the world's largest LCD TV and Nick got to point out where he used to live.