We're in Beijing!

We spent most of today traveling by train from Shanghai to Beijing, and although the landscapes were beautiful (think: farms and fields and small villages), I slept most of the way thanks to our 5:00 a.m. wake-up call. 

And this evening, we went snowboarding. Didn't know there was snowboarding in Beijing? Me neither. But if there was any kind of snowboarding to be found in the city's vicinity, my husband would be the one to find it. The "mountain" was an indoor ski slope just outside the city; as you can imagine, expectations were low. Once inside what looked like two or three merged warehouses, we were pleasantly surprised to find two decent-sized bunny slopes, one slightly bigger than the other, with a jump and rails for Mike, and soft "snow" for me. This was certainly no Squaw, but it was a fun couple of hours that made up for missing opening day -- which Mike hasn't missed for the last 10 or so years.