Saturday June 14, 2012

BEIJING – Mitchell rolled into the Peninsula Hotel about 1:35 a.m.  
after a 36-hour odyssy that included flying from Vancouver, B.C., to  
somewhere above Anchorage, where the plane’s water system failed,  
forcing the flight back to Vancouver. After a several-hour wait, that  
included Mitchell’s second trip to the same airport bar in one day, he  
said goodbye to his new bartender friend and flew 11 and a half hours  
to Beijing. Incredibly, Mitchell seemed to suffer no ill effects, and  
popped awake a few hours later ready to explore Beijing.

We started the day with a taxi ride to King Gong’s Mansion, arriving  
amid a throng of pedicab drivers shouting to us about their services.  
The mansion itself was a cool collection of colorful buildings set  
amid a beautiful garden of pools and stones. People were hand feeding  
gold, orange and yellow koi in ponds of lotus plants. Mitchell and  
Will explored a cavern that angled between several buildings.

Outside, we walked a lengthy hutong that was lined with construction  
projects while dodging pedicabs. We took refuge along a shady path  
that led to a good-sized lake where people in paddle boats were  
ramming one another. At this lake, and the next one we ambled along,  
fishermen lined the shore, some with huge rods, at least 30 feet long,  
balanced on rod-holders. They were fishing for carp. We saw one caught  
fish, a carp of about two feet.

After touring a small temple that towered over the corner of one lake,  
we took the subway back to the hotel. We had a great lunch of Chinese  
dumplings, Will and Courtenay went to the pool, and Mitchell went for  
a workout. He thought he was really hauling on the treadmill—until he  
realized he was running in kilometers per hour. Still, given what he  
had been through, working out at all was a real-man effort.

In the evening, we met up with the Stanford crew for the first time.  
Everyone seemed nice, somewhat cautious socially, and Will had hoped  
for more mingling. He’s eager to make new friends. Such a social kid,  
just like his father.

After dinner, Mitchell and I made the “Night Walk” along the vendors  
hawking street food. We made a list of the bottom five offerings—
sticks of large black spiders, foot-long shark embyros, silk worms and  
three kinds of grilled centipedes, large, small and “diet.” The Oregon  
boys passed on them all.