We arrived in Beijing at about 11:00 pm last night and got into the hotel fairly
exhausted. I intended to hold my promise to see Paul, Grace and David from
last summer, so I rallied the troops, fought off travel fatigue and took a taxi
accross the city. Conversation was awkward, I\'m more rusty than I thought.

We ate jiaozi (dumplings) at a little restaraunt where I celebrated my 21st
birthday last summer and watched Tunisa vs. Soudi Arabia on the bigscreen
outside on the sidewalk. Sanlituan has changed a lot in a year, there\'s now a
huge mall where there wasn\'t anything before.

Today has been a day of walking around the city, doing nothing in particular. I
was happy to be a good tour guide to a few of the kids here, ordering the
yuxiangqiezi (fish-like eggplant) like a pro, and walking around Tiananmen
square. But tonight we\'re off to the train station for the overnight trip to
Harbin, where the adventure really begins.

12 hours in soft sleeper, woohoo!