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We arrived in Beijing early Sunday Morning, September 12, fullfilling our goal to arrive in time for the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. Very early on we weren't sure if we would go and then for a long time we weren't sure that we would make it: First we had trouble getting an apartment and then, in Paris, we were turned down for a visa to China. We were given the choice of either going to Hong Kong or the USA to get it. We elected instead to try for it in England. We left Paris on Aug 27, took the channel tunnel train to London and picked up a car to drive to Darlington where Jan's family lives. We spent two weeks in England including two trips to Manchester to apply for and pick up our Chinese visa. On the second visit we were confindent that we would get it. Nonetheless we asked ourselves "what if?" Well, we did get it. We flew from London to Beijing via Istanbul (plane change only) on September 11 and arrived here September 12, local time, which means we've already been here over a week.

We are in what is called a one-bedroom apartment but it is really a giant studio. It has more floor space than our Paris "pied-a-terre" but it is not sub-divided into separate rooms. The "bedroom" is a loft open to the living room. We're happy with it - the place is clean, mostly quiet, quite well situated, and Jan doesn't have to clean the bathroom. And although we have enough floor space for them, we don't expect 14 overnight guests, as we had for Jan's surprise birthday weekend.

We will be here for sure until October 12 and probably until Nov 12. We are not sure what our commitment is - we asked for two months, but are paying one month at a time. At the current rate it seems like it would be more interesting to only spend a month here and then spend more time in Shanghai, etc.

There is lots and lots to see here, but we are not rushing about doing it. We managed, in fact, one day to sleep until 11:30 a.m. We were rather surprised when we looked at the clock. So far we have seen the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, Mao's tomb, and the ancient Astronomical Observatory — and done lots and lots of walking, gawking and street shopping. The Temple of Heaven was the best as far as we are concerned, but the Observatory has an extremely charming courtyard. We wish we could reproduce it.

We have been exploring Chinese eating places and doing some eating at home. Our first big meal out was to the "Fish Village" where the waiter refused us our first choice — he said it was for four people. We couldn't convince him to give it to us. We ate Peking Duck last week thanks to our friend here, Xie Ming. We think we have one in the fridge too. We bought it in a packet at the main railway station but can't quite read the label -- oops. We're waiting to buy some plum sauce before we eat it. Yesterday we went into a true Chinese place (i.e., they don't speak English and it was cheap) but walked out because the cups weren't clean. We went across the street to an even smaller "local" place and ordered from the Chinese menu - we knew it had beef in it and it turned out to be a beef and tomato stew, which we liked.

There are lots of modern supermarkets; each big office building seems to have one in its basement. We finally found good suppliers of Bran Flakes and other western cereals. Gerry still doesn't have his granola but peanut butter is easy to find. Jan has cut back on coffee because she can't find decaf and reluctantly makes do with instant Nescafe in the morning and green tea in the evening. There are many Starbucks and they claim to have decaf, but the first one she bought was more like the hi test version.

These are the challenges and the pleasures of daily life. When we get desperate, either for a hamburger or a clean loo, we can always go to McDonalds which is on every corner. A side benefit of McDonalds is that we can sit there, like we did Monday, for an hour and read the English papers for free. That is a big savings as they cost about $3.

Wednesday we had planned to go to the Great Wall at Badaling, which is about 50 miles northeast of the city, but put it off. There is a big practice of the 50th anniversary parade to be held October 1; it has disrupted transportation so much that many offices are closed. We were told that we might not get back until Thursday if we dared to take a bus. Instead we stayed at home and watched TV and played with our laptop and composed this letter.

On the TV there are programs in Chinese about the 50 years of the people's Republic. Boy, do we wish we could understand them! Our Chinese knowledge is growing but is pretty meager. Jan is pessimistic while Gerry is the optimist. So far We've learned a few phrases, such as "nin hao" and "the all-important "How much does it cost". That goes a long way!. We hope to do even better.

Monday, a week and a day after our arrival, we also at last got on line. It took us a week to figure out how to connect the phone, dial correctly, and then buy some internet connection time. Gerry spent half Monday morning trying to make it work. When it finally did he was not sure why, but since then we have got online several times, so it's likely that we'll be able to do it at will from now on. It will probably be sometime before we can update our web site. So we are doing a "push" — sending this email -- rather than letting you do a "pull".

We're in good health and having a good time. For three days after getting here Jan had a mild sore throat but that is gone now. It may have been a reaction to the air pollution here, which was very high when we arrived. Today for the first time we used the small exercise room at the end of the hall. Maybe we'll use it a lot more.