Saturday

A very important task today is to change the return flight for Kristine, Kimberley and Grace to Melbourne. They were booked to fly out of Beijing on Jan 5, the very last day before Grace's 6-month ticket expires. However, due to Kristine school term, they have to change their flight to Jan 10. Three calls to AirChina got Grace nowhere. So a visit to their main office downtown, some 8 subway stops away. As Grace's ticket will hv expired by Jan 5, we were expecting some extra money to be paid. Not the case, the young guy changed their flight to the new date without any extra payment.
Attached photos on way to subway station from home. The fruit vendor using a horse cart is unique as our home is some distance away from farmland. The railway tracks separate the subway station from our home. The tracks are used by trains hauling coal to a power generating plant nearby. Train passes through that at most once a day.