THE HILLMAN 2013 ASIAN ADVENTURE
100s of Photos Documenting a 6-week tour of
Malaysia ~ Singapore ~ Thailand ~ China
Section II: China
www.hillmanweb.com/china2013/china01.html
Photos by Bill and Sue-On
Captions by Sue-On (expanded from our FaceBook pages)
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1. ARRIVAL

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 Leaving Penang Airport to Guangzhou then to Beijing - May 2
Bill is anxious to get flying!
Leaving...on a jet plane. 
Don't know when I'll be back again. 
Oh, Babe, I hate to go...
We DID have four fabulous weeks in 
Kerry and Edah's tropical paradise.
The 13.5 km long Penang Bridge 
connects Penang Airport to the mainland.
Bill the pilot?
 Approaching Beijing.
This is just a glimpse of the incredible amount 
of building and high rises in the city!
 Our guide told us of the various ways the gov't 
is trying to reduce the pollution from cars: 
by license plate numbers, days of the week 
when certain numbers can drive, 
but somehow, these ingenious Chinese 
find loopholes in every plan!
Beijing Airport - Terminal M 
Ah... on to the next segment of our dream trip.
Bill, the sole white guy in a sea of Asians :-)
Heading down to the baggage claim area.
Our guide for Beijing,
Jerry, was there to meet us and introduce us 
to the madness of a Chinese parkade!
Both Jerry and the driver mentioned
that they have never seen the roads so empty. 
We made it to our Hotel, 
The Jade Palace, in record time.
It's a 5-star hotel, and
it REALLY is worthy of 5 stars.
There are 4 restaurants and 
numerous recreational facilities.
The beautiful ornate entrance. 
There are service people all over the place: 
doormen, parking attendants, maintenance, bell hops, 
all well-groomed in uniforms. 
But very few spoke English...
The foyer is cavernous - marble everywhere.
We noticed very impressive hotel lobbies 
in every hotel we stayed in or
restaurant lobbies we ate in. 
The Chinese gov't and companies know how to impress.
Our bellhop waits patiently while Jerry checks us in. 
They photocopied our passports. 
We arrived 3 days before the actual tour started.
The hotel was $100.00 CAD per night 
with deluxe breakfast, cable and Internet included.
Try and top THAT, Canada!
This is the mezzanine 
where the breakfast is served.
They serve a full buffet of Asian and
Western breakfast selections. A
t the back, there is a made-to-order 
noodle station and a congee station.
We had to sample everything
on our first breakfast in China!
Congee, pastries with jams on the plate at 1 o'clock. 
The bottom plate has 
rice noodles in soy sauce (brown blob),
fried rice with curried lentils, 
hard boiled egg, bacon, 
and something else at 12 o'clock;-)
Our first morning out along the street close to the hotel. 
What's new in the world today?
Along the street are special paths for scooters, 
electric bikes, and very old rusty bicycles.
Bill thought maybe tomorrow 
we'd try the subway to see some of the sights.
 Have lumber will travel.
Parking for bikes!
There are people constantly 
removing graffiti and posters, 
and scrubbing down public walls.
There are many vendors such as this man - 
making little figures from a playdough-like material. 
Really makes one wonder 
what kind of living this would provide.
The woman behind sweeps the streets.
A more efficient means of 
transporting maintenence tools 
rather than the big vans 
used in America.


BACK TO CHINA CONTENTS

Hundreds of Photos with Captions

CHINA
MALAYSIA / SINGAPORE
Singapore ~ Malaysia


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Web Design:  Bill Hillman
Bill and Sue-On Hillman Eclectic Studio
hillmanweb.com
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada