A Big Adventure

(this happened on)  8^th November 2010, Bird’s Nest, Beijing, China

We slept in a bit, the alarm clock awaking us at 9:30am. We rose slowly and finished packing.

Then we headed to the lobby for coffee and French toast, and then away by Taxi to the Birds Nest (Beijing National Stadium). We were in half a mind to give this a miss, and I’m glad we didn’t. It is truly an impressive structure and really gives you a feel of what the atmosphere must have been like at the 2008 Olympic games. For a small fee we were allowed to go inside, walk around the stands and of course get caught by the tourist shops.

Tes in front of the Bird's Nest

We went back to the Hotel by cab and then  went in search of lunch and found a really good Japanese restaurant. Tes had:-

-       Seaweed salad

-       Miso Soup

-       Eal on a bed of rice

-       More salad

I had:

-       Mixed Sushi

-       Egg, Raw Fresh water prawn, raw scallop, shard, tuna, sea bass

-       California roll

-       Edomame

-       Ebi Tempura

Washed down with lots of Green Tea.

In short it was superb, the fish was really fresh and by the look on her face, Tes really enjoyed the Eel.

We grabbed some fresh fruit and water for the journey ahead and then returned to the Hotel.

We finished packing and went down to the lobby and paid our bill. There was a little argument over a bottle of Evian they said we’d had, but that we’d replaced but we got it sorted.

We then sat in the lobby and sank a couple of large draft beers; a decision, which would cause me much pain shortly. We then jumped into a Taxi (making sure he knew where we were going) and headed off to Beijing West railway station. Now this Taxi driver thought he was Lewis Hamilton, and he kept breaking and dodging; something we would have been glad of had we been in a hurry. At this point the two pints I had consumed in the lobby hit my bladder, and I spend the last half of the journey in agony every time he hit a bump.

Upon arriving at Beijing West it was the usual chaos, but it was made all the more painful by my bursting bladder. The usual fight into a tiny narrow lane, all so we could display our rail tickets. Peaple, pushing-in anywhere and everywhere. I found a toilet and was mighty relieved, then we easily found our waiting area thanks to the modern display system, but of course there was another disorderly queue (if you can call it a queue) to get into the waiting area. Tes and I waited until there was only a small skirmish and then barged in.

The waiting area was reasonably pleasant and we sat for a while before our train was called. It’s more like waiting for a flight than a train; rather like being at the terminal awaiting boarding. Another fight to get onto the platform and as usual we could not understand our train tickets so we had to ask a few times before we found our carriage. On board, in our little home for the next twelve hours, a couple of beers, some fruit and noodles then bed.

(Foot note): What is it about the rudeness of Chinese people when queuing for anything? Tes was queuing for a coffee at Starbucks and two Chinese women just barged past her and ordered. Of course Tes was having none of this and said “Excuse me am I invisible? I’m in the queue in front of you?”. At any, and every opportunity they attempt to barge in, get past, push by. No politeness, no “after you” not even an “excuse me”. Then there is their general toilet behavior; they have barely discovered sit down toilets, most are toilet turks. I remember some of these in Europe when I was a child 35 years ago. They piss and shit everywhere and just leave it all to hang out, they hawk and gob all over the place, it is most disgusting.

I thought the Hong Kong Chinese were rude and disgusting, until I got close up to the mainlanders. If we are so shocked and offended by their behavior what must the Japanese think of them?

(editors note: please note these are the authors views and not the views of the site owners, If you feel these views are fair or unfair please feel free to add a comment. Our own experience: while on a visit to Macau in the then Brand New Grand Lisboa Casino and Chinese people were spitting on the brand new carpet inside the casino, not little spit, big hawked up gobs. We also saw the same kind of thing on the recent BBC series Am Idiot Abroad, and there we also saw the very poor bathroom hygiene)