All the tour participants (except three) met
in Terminal 2 of Northwest Airlines at Los Angeles Airport and were able to
comfortably check in as a group. IslamiCity families of Mohammed Aleem &
Shakeel Syed welcomed the participants to Los Angeles, and bid them farewell
with hugs and prayers. 
Mukarram Syed of Indianapolis met us at the
gate as he was flying separately on Air China. Although he departed after us
from Los Angeles but reached Beijing four hours before us. We first flew to
Tokyo for about ten hours & then about four hours to Beijing, our final
destination. Husband & Wife team of El-Moslimany's from Seattle joined us
in Tokyo. Some of the participants were flying for the first time outside US
and others were veterans but all of us were equally excited.
We arrived in the city of Beijing, local time
9:45 pm on Aug 4. In US it was around 7 am (PST) Aug 4. It seemed we brought
some serious rain with us, also known as Barakah. Beijing was pouring
cats and dogs at the time.
Beijing Airport makes many modern airports in
the West look old. It is new and sprawling. Within less than 30 minutes we
picked up our baggage, got customs clearance and completed the immigration
formalities.
Br. Yusuf Mah, our Tour Manager in China were
waiting for us with Mr. Jason, the local Tour Guide for Beijing. It was not
too difficult for us to recognize them. Their tour company is known as MM
(Marvelous Muslim) Tours. After pleasantries and before heading to bus, we
took a group picture at the airport.
The air-conditioned bus was comfortable and
roomy enough for all the passengers and their baggage. Everyone packed lightly
so that the shopping in China could be brought back easily.
The drive from airport to the Hotel was about
45 minutes. Yusuf and Jason took turns to formally welcome us again and
introduced themselves with their respective roles during our stay in Beijing.
The city was rather quiet for our first rainy night in China.
We reached hotel and were impressed with the
smooth check in and the long list of amenities of the Xiyuan International
Hotel. Our bags were delivered to our rooms directly from the bus. All rooms
were pre-assigned with the list provided by IslamiCity. Individual keys were
handed to the participants. Yusuf showed the Muslim Halal Restaurant that was
exclusively reserved for us for the breakfast.
The 4 star Xiyuan
International Hotel not only had an all exclusive Muslim
Halal Restaurant but when we reached our rooms, the nicely laid out Musalla
in the room and a copy of the Quran took our breath away. They had
Islamicized the rooms for us, MashaAllah.
Alhamdulillah, we were in the enchanting
land of China! Most of us decided to retire to rest well for a full day of
touring tomorrow, said our goodbyes and headed for the rooms.
Inside
Travel
