February 13, 2005 Sunday

We landed in Beijing at 5:30 pm (or 4:30 am EST) and there was a round of applause on the plane that we had finally landed. We met our guide, Sims, along with 2 other families & checked-in the hotel Hua Du. We are definately a minority now. We are now in our room & we have fireworks going off outside. In Beijing this is the only time of the year it is legal to set off fireworks in celebration of Chinese New Year.