China Trip - Part 1 - Flight & Hotel

I've decided to divide my trip into several small posts.  I want you to know up front that I can't say anything or post anything about the actual reason we went to China.  If you want to know about that part of my trip I will be happy to tell you in person...sorry, it's just the rules.

On January 9th Bran took me to Denise's house about 5:30. It was pitch black and really really cold! 

This is the team (munis mom) Not clear at all, but the only one I have. 
From left - Courtney, Ina Kay, Judy, Denise, Mindy and me.

This was the sunset somewhere over the North Pole.

My first dinner on the flight to Hong Kong.  It was actually really good.

Hong Kong Airport.

Jingmin Central Hotel - We stayed in this hotel for the first 10 days. You can see by the apartments right next to it that we were not downtown.  We were smack in the middle of 100's of apartments.

Real life was all around us.  This fruit stand was just across the street form the entrance of our hotel.  Cumquats are just about my favorite fruit. very hard to find good ones in the US. I visited it several times!

The was the street our hotel was on.  You can see here that all the bottom floors are vendors/stores.  All the levels above it are apartments.  In our area most of them were only 8-10 floors high. In the rest of the city...30 +floors.

This guy was right by the fruit stand cleaning a chicken.

These poor guys just had to stand and watch.  I like to call them lunch and dinner!

This was a street sweeper. You can see his "broom" if you look really close.
 It's the bush...they used just dried up bamboo leaves wrapped around a thin bamboo stalk.

There is just no limit to what people can carry on bikes!

The smog was terrible.  Some days worse then others...but always there.

This is a look at the inside of our hotel.  It really was beautiful.

Well, that's the skinny on our flight and hotel. More tomorrow!