Taipei

Left Tokyo in the morning and after a short flight I arrived at the Shongshan airport in Taipei. It was 2 pm and I arrived at the hotel before 2:30 pm, only 15 minutes ride on the subway for 25 TWD (New Taiwanese Dollars – less than 0.65 EUR or 6 SEK) :-O



After checking in at the hotel I had a walk around the area. It was a hot summer day (30+ degrees Celsius) with a blue sky and only a few fluffy white clouds. The only thing that was missing was Chie.

I bought a bottle of jasmine tea and a bread kind of thing that was stuffed with meat and vegetables. Walked to the Memorial Peace Park. Had a picnic in the shades. Watched some kids feeding a couple of squirrels. And just enjoyed the time.



After a while I got hungry again and decided to head back towards the hotel to find a place to have dinner before going to the gym at the hotel. I found a local restaurant on a back street but they only spoke Chinese. Luckily another customer could speak some English and she helped me ordering dinner. I picked chicken and four different kinds of vegetables side dishes. It cost me 75 TWD, which is almost nothing.



Once I filled my tummy I headed back to the hotel. Did some chest exercises in the gym. Had a hot bath in my hotel room. Video chatted some with Chie. Watched a video on my iPad. And went happily to sleep.

Beijing

Arrived in Beijing around lunch time. Took a taxi to the Marriott Courtyard hotel after some trouble to explain where I wanted to go to the taxi driver, though I had a printout of the hotel address 🙂

The air was as nice a welcome as the taxi driver. Grey and smoggy.



Once the taxi driver find his way to the hotel I checked in, put my bags in the room I went directly to the office, which is about 15 minutes walk from the hotel. I spent the rest of the workday there meeting people and setting up to meet people for the rest of the week as well.

At around 6 pm I went back to the hotel and had a dinner. Then I went to the gym before just relaxing in the room before going to bed.