Our home for almost a month, the Wyndham Grand Plaza Royale Chengdu, would soon be nothing but a memory. Well, it’s about time! There are advantages and disadvantages about everything. But all together the 3 of us racked up a laundry bill of just about $1,000. Big disadvantage. I could have bought a brand new wardrobe for my share of that! They also tried to charge us for 3 cigarette holes in linen. None of us smoke, so the General got that taken care of. Nothing gets by the General, monetarily speaking. He is a Hebrew!
After the lengthy check out process, our regular driver took us to the airport. As we pulled up, another 120 vehicle angled in in front of us. Out popped Miao, another director, Pu and Leo! They had come to see us off. Quite a gesture for all of them, and very much appreciated by us! Leo was able to translate for us, and we the found out that Paula and I would be paying 440 yuan ($70) for our second bag. Well that is just great! Goodbyes were quick, but not painless. Pu told Paula that she loved her multiple times, and Paula welled up a bit. Hugs abounded for all of us, and it was a pretty amazing thing. We came into these peoples lives and made such a difference to them that they took time out of their day, drove over an hour round trip, spent an hour with us before we went through security. The hospitality and sincerity of these people is completely and absolutely breathtaking. You can say what you want about China and the air pollution and the billions of people and communism, but the individual people are fantastic. Our experience has been a very positive one, and certainly will never be forgotten in any of our hearts.
Nothing exciting happened in the Chengdu airport, and nothing exciting happened on the flight. We were fed, it was duck and it was only ok. Airplane food is only ok. We arrived in Beijing with no fanfare, and the first thing we noticed was there was no shortage of white people. We were no longer celebrities. Shane Battier, it was nice being you for a few weeks, but you can have yourself back. Apparently I am done. Jesse had told us that a taxi to our hotel would be 100 yuan. Yeah, right. We needed a big van because of all of our crap. It was 500 yuan. We had no energy to haggle at that moment. Such is life. The driver did prove to us that this is what it costs to go to where we needed. It was about 40 km. So it ended up being fair. Our hotel was right in the middle of Beijing. Perfect. Could not have picked a better location. Nice place, too.
Jesse met us in the lobby at 630 pm to take us to Beijing duck. This was supposed to be the best duck anywhere. A short walk later we arrived at the restaurant, and it certainly smelled good. To sum it up, this was not only the best duck I have ever had, but was one of the best meals we have had in China. And that is saying something because we have had a lot of good food here. It really was unbelievable. Crispy skin, tender meat and ridiculous flavor. If they made duck like that back home I would eat it as much as possible. And so would every one of you!
After dinner we headed back to the hotel to the executive lounge and enjoyed a few drinks. So close to the end, we had to look back on what we accomplished and relax. I took a page from the dude and ended up enjoying some white Russians. I think that will be my drink of choice now, if I were to drink liquor. Nothing beats the home brewed beer though! Few more days and I can enjoy one of those from the comforts of my own couch with my wife under my arm and my boys getting me to wrestle with them! But first we had some serious sight-seeing….
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