(this happened on) 4^th November 2010, Beijing, China

G&T’s Travels in China Continue

I awoke around 6:30am, with the light coming in through the train window, I quickly drew the shade and slept on until around 8:30am when Tes asked what time it was.

We arose slowly, had a light breakfast of juice etc, washed (a little tricky on the train), Tes snoozed again, and I tried to understand Mandarin, (stupid language, all tonal).

Lunch: Same menu, same problems in deciphering what to have, in the end we ordered beef with veggies (looked like peppers in the picture, but turned out to be courgettes, Zucchini) and some spicy shredded pork with asparagus, and a few other items I could not identify, and therefore did not eat. Soup and rice to accompany and this time I have to say the food was pretty dammed good. Washed down with some acceptably strong coffee.

We asked what time we would arrive in Beijing, seems like around 3pm, making the journey about 24 hours.

Whilst whizzing along in the train we would often stare out of the window at the passing countryside. Some observations we made were..

1)   Very neat and tidy looking roads with not much traffic.

2)   Very flat for the most part

3)   A lot of agricultural land

4)   Some factories

5)   Lots of construction apparent when passing through towns.

6)   Everyone seems to have one of those solar water heaters on their rooftop

7)   Nearly all the rooftops were flat.

8)   The agricultural land seemed to have very sandy soil.

9)   We saw corn (previously harvested), rice paddy fields, orchards, olive trees, various vegetables, cabbage, bok choi etc.

10)   Some places look very industrial, no surprise there

The train arrived bang on time at 3pm in Beijing west railway station. We got our gear together and made our way off the train. The platform was huge, I mean really huge, at least 4 time the width of a normal platform, and it seemed our train had grown in length and was now at least 30 carriages long.

As expected we had to clear passport control and customs in Beijing. This was rather an unpleasant experience since the first step was to pass our baggage through a scanner… one scanner for the whole train!  The entry way was just two door widths and in true Mainland Chinese style there was a perfectly ordered queue…. Just joking, it was more akin to a scrimmage with the local skinheads. People were pushing and shoving in all directions. This could so easily have been avoided by some strategically placed divider rails but no, the Chinese prefer to spend millions on a huge impressive platform, only to have a tiny doorway, one scanner, and no policing of the queue.

OK once finally past the scanner, and feeling a little bruised and beaten, the next obvious problem is that we had not filled out our immigration forms, not a fault on our part you understand, but more to do with the fact that we had not been passed one at anytime on the train. Again, something which could so easily have been done, but was overlooked.

Some quick scribbles and we found the only FOREIGNER, queue. Now things went much more smoothly from here, we passed passport control and customs seemed non-existent (are you listening smugglers?).

Outside the station it was rather confusing, lack of sign posts and rather too many people loitering with intent, which made us feel rather nervous. Once we located the Taxi sign it seemed strange, we had to go back into the building through another entrance and then down some stairs under and underpass this way and that and then walk about 300 yards along to the taxi queue. It all seemed a little backwards once again.

OK well by now there was no queue for cabs, brilliant! We jumped in a cab and I proudly showed the cab driver where we had to go, on my printout of our hotel reservation…. Hmmm then I realized it was not in Chinese but in English, he recognized Wangfujing Avenue and sped off. We felt comfortable and watched the scenery go by… very impressive.

Beijing is just such a pretty city and so well laid out. Then the cab driver said something in Chinese and I realized he must be asking “where on Wangfujing Street”. I tried “Crown Hotel” only to get a frown, so I showed him number 48, he repeated it in Chinese and again we felt OK.

As we turned onto Wangfujing Street, I realized that the Hotel was on Wangfujing Avenue. I fretted for a while and hoped that Wangfujing Street and Avenue were not far from each other. Worried I looked up the word Avenue in my Chinese language book and showed the driver, he snorted as though I were a fool and said “Wangfujing!” gesticulating outside as though it was obvious we were on Wangfujing Street. Five minutes later, he pulled over looking confused.

I was convinced we were on the wrong street. (Street, rather than Avenue), we showed him the telephone number of the hotel and he called them. A few words later he laughed and did a U turn… 300 yards back he pointed out our Hotel… it seems there is no distinction between Street and Avenue in Chinese

Relieved, we crossed the road, with a Chinese girl trying desperately to chat to us in English. We checked into the Hotel, we had a fantastic room, in fact I’d recommend this Hotel (Crown Plaza) to anyone.

We were so tired and hungry; once again we fell into the Hotel restaurant trap. We tried theEssence Restaurant, really just a posh coffee shop. We had clam chowder to start, very acceptable, Tes had Hinan Chicken rice again, the presentation was fantastic with the three traditional sauces, and she seemed to enjoy it but simply commented that the Marina Mandarin Singapore was much better… what can I say to that? I opted for baked cod on a bed of Pilaf rice and it was fantastic.

Whilst munching our meal, we became aware that we had quite a strong floating and rocking sensation, not unlike that of one who has been at sea for rather a ling time and feels like he is still at sea when on land. This was quite unpleasant and no doubt due to the motion of the train.

An early night in a wonderful bed.

I awoke at midnight wanting a snack, room service provided a very satisfying Wanton soup and fresh fruit. Back to bed.

This Is Yer Actual China!