Thursday, February 21, 2018 - Departure Wang Jun and Xiaohong met us at the hotel at 8:45 a.m. On behalf of the larger group, Xiohong presented us with a lovely miniature teapot made of Jianshui purple pottery. It was such a thoughtful gift, the definitive souvenir from the Jianshui region, and something we hadn't had a chance to buy for ourselves. We said goodbye to Xiaohong and followed Wang Jun to his car in the parking garage. Once we got in the car, he excused himself for a moment. He returned out of breath with several packages of chili powder that he had just purchased at a neighborhood store, a parting gift for the American Chili King. He had obviously run the entire way! He drove us to the airport and we said goodbye curbside. It was an emotional goodbye as we had enjoyed our time together so greatly, and are eager to revisit the family. Luckily, we just obtained a 10 year visa, so future visits should be quite easy! On our flight to Beijing, we sat next to Wei Yang, a friendly young video game developer. He was home visiting his family in Guiyang for the Spring Festival, and was now on his way back to Tokyo where he works for Sega. He took a selfie with us and added a filter so that we all had bunny ears, noses, and whiskers! When we got to Beijing, I had hoped to buy a couple of last minute items at the airport. Our journey had been so frenetic and on-the-go that I hadn't had a chance to really buy anything. Craig wanted some green tea, and I wanted to get something for my Chinese colleague. The entire airport terminal contained nothing but endless duty free shops and high end fashion shops. The terminal we had been in on previous trips had a wonderful shop full of all kinds of souvenirs, but this one had nothing. I asked an employee at one of the duty free shops (of course the Cracker song "Duty Free" came to mind) if they sold green tea. He shook his head but told me that there was a small shop near a certain gate which may have some. I wandered around for about 15 minutes looking for the shop until finally I saw an unassuming doorway next to a vending machine. It had a sign above it which said in small English letters "Generic Shop." I stepped inside and found myself in a tiny shop that sold a few random souvenir items as well as some food items. They had tea (but not green tea.) I was able to buy a box of New Year moon cakes for my friend at work, and counted myself lucky. Slim pickings indeed! We were thinking of getting some food, but other than Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and KFC, there wasn't really anything available. This terminal was so weird! Oh, and it's official...the only other westerners we saw on the entire trip were in the Beijing airport. We boarded our United flight to Washington, D.C. It was much less crowded than the flight over had been, and we actually had an empty seat between us. It was so much more comfortable that way! After having our dinner, we put Bob Dylan on shuffle on the iPod, took Nyquil to quiet our colds, and settled in for the long flight. We had flown east to get to China (taking advantage of a massive tailwind), and we flew east home as well. So we had truly circumnavigated the globe! We landed in D.C. and went through Global Entry. We each got a pizza at &Pizza, and waited for our flight to Boston. A young woman next to us at the airport gate was wearing short shorts and was laying on her seat with her legs up in the air, totally flashing Craig. Classy! We arrived in Boston at 11:30 p.m. It is always amazing to travel west...leaving Guizhou in the morning, taking three flights, and still getting home the same day! We picked up our luggage and caught a cab home, arriving at our house by 12:30 a.m. We were happy for the quick turnaround time, as I had to work the next morning.

Wang Jun and Xiaohong present us with a purple pottery teapot from Jianshui It took me half an hour to find this store in the Beijing airport Completing our circumnavigaton of the globe See all photos from February 21, 2018