I am not very proud of many decisions I have taken in life but this one's different - I am thrilled that I got my tennis racquet in spite of the pretty strict luggage-weight constraints in Cathay Pacific. I am penning this after having spent a nice long rallying session at a local tennis court at BLCU - ISH. 

Tunghuarens (mainlanders) are extremely hospitable. My tennis skills are not extraordinary and my putonghua-speaking skills are not worth boasting about either. Interestingly, you need both in the tennis court! 

Chan, Xiansheng, xiexie ni! (Mr Chan, Thank you) for getting what I was trying to convey and allowing me to play :-)

The story was a bit different when I entered the court though - 
Me : "Wo Xiang da." "Hao ma?"  (Shall I play?)
Guy in the court (smiling) : "Bu` ke- yi" (No you cannot)
but I'd want to regard this guy as an exception and still maintain my above statement about mainlanders being hospitable.

Earlier, Day 1 had me landing at the Beijing capital international airport - A gargantuan structure (I shall upload the pictures sometime). For now, just to give you an idea - after landing, we had to take a train (fast tram) to reach the baggage claim. The escalator was about 3-4 floors high; It was a sight really. While land at Beijing, if you come to China, do get to a window seat and view the planned structures below. Its an amazingly planned city. And, in addition to being well planned, the structures in Beijing are all XXLs.

One suggestion to anyone who is planning to make a trip to China though - Please learn a bit of Mandarin (local language - Putonghua) before you land here. English (Yingwen), is finding its way into major retail outlets and also among people in general but there are places where it becomes too difficult to manage without knowing the local language.

My exploration of Beijing - the lu`s(buildings/bridges/roads) and the fan` dia`ns(restaurants) begins today. Will keep you folks posted on my travails.

I'll take your leave for now with this thought - Chinese toothpicks are sharp on both sides. Is that a sign of the efficiency they supposedly have in their operations? Two sharp sides effectively means that the redundant blunt side of a toothpick has been chucked out. Think about it.