We began boarding the plane around 4PM and pushed back by 4:40. However, we sat on the tarmac for another 2 hours, taking off around 6:40. For some reason, I was pretty tired when I got on the plane, so I was looking forward to my first chance to sleep. I waited until the first feeding session, which happened about an hour after takeoff, read some of my book and popped an Ambien. I put on my blinders, my earplugs, and my neckpillow around 8PM and woke up at 1:40AM. I was really happy that I got a solid 6 hours in, but my earplugs were really starting to hurt my ears. I read some more of The Help until 3AM, and then went back to sleep. I woke up again at 5AM to some bizarre stretching exercises being looped over and over on the TVs. I figured that I would stay awake for the rest of the flight. I had breakfast and got off the plane at 8:30. The airport was deserted when we arrived in our terminal, and I was blown away by the huge terminal building. The ceiling was far far above me, and the room stretched far off into the distance. Everything looked very new, not surprising since it was probably extensively renovated for the Beijing Olympics. I noticed that some of the lightbulbs were burnt out on the ceiling, and I was glad i didn't have to change them. We went through customs and caught a tram to the baggage carousel. I was dumbfounded by the sheer scale of the airport, huge hallway after huge hallway snaking away into the distance and workers walking along far away platforms. I wish that I had the security clearance to wander through the vastness of the airport, it is really a awe-inspiring feat of engineering. We waited again at baggage claim while one of the group members filled out paperwork for a missing bag. I was amazed that the Duty-Free shop was filled almost entirely with Malboro cigarettes, which the Chinese seemed to love buying in bulk. I guess that Chinese cigarettes are pretty bad. We went outside and I realized that all the talk about smog in China was true. A very prominent haze hung under every street light. Once we boarded the bus, we took a frightening trip back to the hotel. I noticed that Chinese drivers already seemed to be the worst drivers I've ever seen. When we got back to the hotel room, Ryan and I spent a good 5 minute figuring out the unique light system of the room, which is kept on as long as a keycard is in a special holster by the door. We had a late supper at a restaurant that was Westernized enough to have large photos of the food items for us to point to when ordering. I crawled into the rock-hard bed at 1AM (Chinese time) and reportedly didn't move the whole night, as the Ambien combined with my exhaustion knocked me out quickly.