Photo 1:  Early Morning bus ride from train station to hotel (August 28, 2009)

Photos 2-4: Views of downtown Harbin (August 29, 2009)

11-hour train ride from Beijing to Harbin (August 27, 2009)

Wandering around Beijing's hutong area (back alleys) (August 27, 2009)

Hutongs (simplified Chinese: 胡同; traditional Chinese: 衚衕; pinyin: hútòng) are narrow streets or alleys, most commonly associated with Beijing, China. In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences.^[1]Many neighbourhoods were formed by joining one siheyuan to another to form a hutong, and then joining one hutong to another. The word hutong is also used to refer to such neighbourhoods.

Since the mid-20th century, the number of Beijing hutongs has dropped dramatically as they are demolished to make way for new roads and buildings. More recently, some hutongs have been designated as protected areas in an attempt to preserve this aspect of Chinese cultural history.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutong)

Photo 1:  Starbucks at Beijing airport  (August 26, 2009)

Photo 2:  Getting rid of the travel stress with Ba Guan treatment: http://www.damo-qigong.net/guasha/huoguan.htm  (August 26, 2009)

Photo 3:  Convenience store kitty (August 27, 2009)

Photo 4:  Back of Hou Hai park (August 27, 2009)

Photo 5:  Old lady in front of Hou Hai Park (August 27, 2009)

Photo 6:  Beijing taxi driver’s perspective (August 27, 2009)

United Airlines Flight #889

Depart San Francisco, CA:  11:05am   Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Arrive Beijing, China:  2:40pm     Wednesday, August 26, 2009