Preliminaries in Peking

After spending the 11th doing more sightseeing in Seoul, we flew to Beijing on the 12th. Arriving shortly after noon, we proceeded to the rally hotel the Shangri-La just off the 3rd Ring Road in Beijing. No one will be surprised that first impressions are that Beijing is huge and that there are a lot of people here: cars, mopeds, bicycles, pedestrians. Security presence is very high and much more visible that Seoul. Many apartment buildings have gated entrances and security guards. Our hotel has metal detectors and security personnel at all of the entrances. Other rally participants are starting to filter in.

We spent Tuesday dealing with some of the procedural issues: surrendering passports to be ferried to another town to obtain our temporary automobile registrations, followed by retrieving the passports and heading out to obtain our temporary Chinese driving licenses. Here we discovered a common bond with the Chinese people: The DMV. Our 3 hours there were remarkably similarly to the experience at any DMV in the States: huge room lined with benches facing a long counter with multiple work stations and filled with people waiting with varying degrees of patience for their turn at the window. It did provide us with the opportunity to get better acquainted with some of our fellow ralliers. Keith managed to befriend a young Chinese man who had been educated at the University of Georgia. Go Dawgs! Licenses in hand, we returned to the hotel.

Harry had arranged for a dinner with some colleagues from his company. They treated us to a sumptuous Chinese banquet and a great evening of conversation. Our departure from the restaurant was delayed due to a hail storm. Thankfully, the cars were still undercover in the warehouse.