Shanghai?!

Today is the launch of our one month Asian excursion and yielded our first BONUS.  Shock of all shocks, our flight from Melbourne to Beijing was NOT direct.  We had the lucky privilege of disembarking, clearing immigration and customs, and reboarding our flight after 10 hours to Shanghai.  This was actually worsened by my bronchitis delivering full blown pressurized ear pain during take off and landing - once was bad enough.  Twice?!  We flew Air China and the announcements were made in Chinese, many times without a subsequent English translation.  Good thing Katie and I make fast friends.  We were in the know, don't worry.  We arrived in Beijing, flew through customs, and were greeted by our private car transfer guide who drove us from the airport to our hotel in Beijing, which was our first introduction to the traffic and driving madness of this huge city!!  Do they even have traffic rules?!  One must wonder because no one obeys traffic signals, no one wears seat belts, cars are constantly swerving into each other with endless honking.  I am never driving here!