Shan Wu

And … I am in Beijing. It took about 22 hours door-to-door, Boston to Chicago to Beijing. Since the flight was arriving in Beijing in the late afternoon, I tried not to sleep that much on the plane to get started on fighting the jet lag. In turn, I got some pictures of the amazing views out the window throughout.

Lake Michigan

Swirling clouds somewhere over Canada

Ice crystals on the window glass

The Arctic Ocean

Somewhere over frozen Siberia

Mountain peaks, still over Russia

Some rivers coming off of the above mountain range

Gorgeous basins

Flatter terrain, though it’s hard to tell how flat it actually is

First signs of civilization amidst all the white!

Cold cold settlements in the mountains about 30 minutes before Beijing

Geometric settlements in the outskirts of Beijing (terrain is now very very flat)

Health inspection booths are before the immigration counters

Home! Looking out my bedroom window

My aunt and uncle came up to Beijing from Hangzhou to meet me at the airport and help me settle in. I now have a phone, internet, and leftover Peking duck in the fridge. I also successfully took the bus to work this morning, though I had a hard time waking up on time (bye bye jet lag?).

Final note: it is COLD here. I’ve yet to derive any meaning from Celsius temperatures, but I’m told it got down to -5C yesterday. I converted that to 23F before responding, “Oh wow, that’s below freezing.” Hahaha.