Day 1 - Arrival

Well here we are in China, after a long-ish flight leaving wellington at 6pm, getting the overnight flight to Hong Kong at 11pm, arriving at 6:30am, then the connecting flight to Beijing at 9:15am to arrive in Beijing at about 1pm, (or 5pm NZT).

Beijing airport is massive.  I figured this out, when I looked out the window of the plane as we were getting close to land and there was another plane landing parallel to us a couple of miles away.  Actually my first thought was “PANIC” there’s another plane trying to land at the same time as us.

Once we’d taxied for 15 minutes, we arrived at the gate, and then the usual long walk to get to officialdom so we could clear customs, which took a couple of minutes to get through the queue.  There was a little touch pad with 5 faces, so I could rate the quality of the service of my frowning female customs officer – I didn’t.   From there, we caught a train for a couple of stops, to collect our bags, and then we were out and meeting Michael, who will be our guide for the next 5 days in Beijing.

This being our first time in China, we have decided to kick for touch and have people to show us around, and it transpires that we get a guide and driver who will be with us for our time in each city, which is proving to be very useful.  Today being arrival day, there tasks are pretty simple – wait for us at the airport, drive us to the hotel, arrange the time to meet us the next morning – job done.

Our hotel is called the Bamboo Gardens Hotel, and it is in the Hutong district – I have put some photos on Flickr.  Hutongs are narrow little alley ways and are the way that historic Beijing was laid out.  Modern Beijing is all high rises and wide streets, but the Hutong district is a bit more characterful, and we are really enjoying the hotel.  We had been a bit worried that it might have been a bit too “rustic”, but the rooms are all beautifully furbished, clean and very comfortable.  There is Wi-Fi and a safe in the room, so the bare necessities are covered.

We spent the afternoon wandering around the Hutong District, looking at the ancient Drum and Bell towers, which were Beijing’s ancient timekeepers, wandering up and down the little alleyways, looking in the tightly packed little shops, the little restaurants that I didn’t think we’d be eating in, and some bigger ones that looked a bit more like possibilities. None did us the courtesy of having menus with pictures or English out the front, so we’ll leave that little adventure for tomorrow night. Our guide had told us on the way in from the airport that Beijing was very safe and we should have no worries about being out on the street.  He warned us about the Tea House and Rickshaw scams, but other than that we shouldn’t have any problems.  People might want to  practice their English on us, or have their photos taken with the “big noses”, which is what they call us whiteys, but as long as we don’t get suckered in to being taken to places we didn’t need to go, we should be fine.  And indeed we were, although nobody wanted to practice their English on us, or have their photos taken with our Big Noses, or even lead us off into a life of sin and debauchery, so we survived our first solo excursion out into the back streets of old Beijing. 

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant, which was a mixed success.  The entries of red duck and pigs knuckles were both cold – they were apparently meant to be, and while the red duck was ok, the pig’s knuckles were just old fatty skin and bone (see photo), so they went largely uneaten.  The mains of shredded pork and fried rice were much better, and enough to send us to bed satiated.  Next time, we must have pictures.