Hello, Beijing!!

Settled into our Hotel, the Jiangxi Grand Hotel. It is in the 3rd ring around Beijing. We are told the city center is more than an hour away. We drove more than an hour from the airport to arrive here through miles of gingko trees planted in rows, then the urban developments of high-rises. All with much, much traffic and a deep gray overcast sky. Thunder rumbling now. The hotel windows allow you to crack them a bit to hear the sounds of horns in the distance.

There are 16 Fulbright-Hays Summer Scholars on this adventure.  Very exciting.  I want to try posting this as my first attempt.  Thunder rumbles outside in the distance.