Woke up easily this morning when my alarm when off at 4:50—I slept great-- which I wasn’t sure would happen. I met up with the rest of my group at the airport and we took a plane for babies called the “United Express” to Chicago. Smallest commercial plane ever, but it was a nice short flight over to O’Hare.
My “top ten” places to visit:
1. Great Wall
2. 798 Space
3. Temple of Heaven
4. Forbidden City
5. Tian’an Men Square
6. Summer Palace
7. Pearl/Silk markets
8. Hou Hai
9. Lama Temple (Younghegong) Buddhist Temple
10. Confucian Teahouse
Our flight was just fine. We all were in the middle section but at least we were together. We were cozy, and I had one of those horseshoe pillows so I did alright. It was crazy to watch the GPS tracker of our journey—we actually went up over the North Pole! Felt pretty strange to literally be on top of the world.
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| And to think, Santa's workshop is just 6 hours from Chicago... |
On the plane I read the sports biography, “Open” by Andre Agassi. It really got me in the mood to watch some great tennis. It’s unbelievable how serious people get over training to become a pro tennis player—and many of those people are going to be playing in the qualifying rounds for the China Open in just a few days.
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| On the plane we get “United Chinese Noodles” not bad! |
We finally arrive in BEIJING! At around 2:45 Beijing time. We check in through customs, take a train to where our bags are delivered, and meet up with our China Open “receivers” who flag us down and show us where to exchange our US dollars. Dr. Zhang meets us outside the baggage carousel, where people waiting are taking pictures of us!
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| I like it here already. |
After we exchange some money and get our things together, we follow our “guides” outside the airport, where our transportation is waiting.
We didn’t expect to get picked up by “China Open” Mercedes Benz! We went two to a car and felt like celebrities. We drove following each other with the blinkers on, like a motor brigade. It was all so surreal and the next thing you know we were driving around Beijing.
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| I could get used to this.... |
Our hotel is connected to a China theme park, and is very clean and modern. Not like the Holiday Inn’s in America at all, our hotel has a beautiful dining area on a patio and a chic looking lounge. All the junior tennis teams are staying here as well.
We’re right by the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and after we settle into our rooms, we meet to go to dinner.
We walk into a beautiful room with a huge round table and find Yabin Zhang, Director of the China Open Tennis Company, LTD., and several of his staff members. We are treated to an amazing meal that had at least 20 courses. We couldn’t even try everything. It was all beautifully prepared and presented to us on a huge green centerpiece that spun around.
We had an official toast and spent several hours chatting with the China Open staff and trying some crazy dishes.
Tomorrow we have our first training meeting at the stadium and will be doing sight-seeing in the afternoon!
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| Sweet and sour fish. Actual name of this was something about a squirrel they said not to worry.... |
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| Our chef slicing the roast duck. |
China Open Chairmen Yabin Zhang and our program directors Ernest Zhang and Jean Abbott.
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