First Week (almost)

We've been here just long enough to adjust to the time change and get to know our neighborhood a little bit. 

The building where we stay is on the blue pinpoint on this map.  Our windows face south.  The big building with the white roof two blocks south of us is a big department store.  Our neighborhood is nice but not too nice.  Fortunately, it still has some good hole in the wall restaurants and you can always find an empty cab.  There's a great import store down the street called "Jenny Lou's" ("Lou's" rhymes with "goes") that I have appropriately nicknamed J-Lo's.  Everything we absolutely need is within walking distance.  The only drawback is we're not within walking distance of a subway station.

Later in the week we're planning on hitting the rounds of the basic Beijing destinations: Tiananmen, Summer Palace, etc..