We set off late from SFO and found ourselves seated next to a very nice lady who, it turns out, grew up in China and moved to southern California with her husband when she was 30. She shared all kinds of interesting information with us about China and how it has changed over the past 20 years. At the “end” of the flight, they told us we had to land in Hohot instead of Beijing due to weather issues. We were sad not to be able to get off the plane and scared that we might be stranded in Inner Mongolia forever. We eventually took off and made it to Beijing about four hours late. In the meantime, we met Sandy and Sarah who were on our China Spree trip and had fun getting to know them. It was hot and humid at 10pm when we disembarked, but the airport was beautiful, empty, and air conditioned! We checked into our very nice hotel, Joy City Hotel, and crashed.Our tour guides are Jim (who is the national guide for the group we’re with for a few days) and Richard, the Beijing local guide. They are both super nice and helpful.