Return to Beijing

It’s now Saturday morning and we have just arrived at the Qianmen JianGao Hotel in downtown Beijing; it was only 12 hours ago that we left Amsterdam and descended upon a very smoggy and apparently “unhealthy” Beijing (according to the AQI - Air Quality Index).

Our flight to Beijing was much better than expected as China Southern upgraded us to Premium Economy so we had lots of room and reclining seats. The meals were either Chinese Style (Beef and Rice for Dinner, Noodles and Chicken for breakfast) or Western Style (Chicken and potatoes for dinner and sausages and egg for breakfast). I spent the flight watching Black Panther and reading a bit more of the book “Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China,” a book by Jung Chang. 



We arrived at Beijing airport on time and passed through passport control reasonably quickly, although providing our fingerprints twice seemed a bit excessive. The tour company we booked with, Wendy Wu, was providing all transport so we went to the arrivals hall to be picked up. After 20 minutes and being accosted by every taxi driver in the airport, we decided to ask a security officer as there was no sign of our guide. Luckily, she plonked her phone in my hand so we could call the emergency contact. Tony, our guide for the trip, was very apologetic and it wasn’t long before we were whisked off in Hyundai “something” with blackout windows. 

Now if you read the blog last time round, you will remember that our taxi driver was a maniac; this time was no different! Apparently the emergency vehicle lane was built for us; he weaved in and out of traffic with one hand on the wheel. The reason for this was because he had a set of “stress-balls” in the other! He also liked signing along to his music which included Backstreet Boys, Elton John and Maroon 5. We did get to drive through Tiananmen Square which was pretty cool though! 

On arrival at the hotel, we got a couple of complementary soft drinks as we had to wait 40 minutes before we could check in. All we could think about was sleep...at 10am, we got the key to our room. Tony made sure we had everything, including checking the flush on our toilet, before leaving for the airport to pick up the next lot of guests. We totally overslept, until 3pm, but it was totally worth it!

We were due to meet the majority of the group at 6pm so we could go to dinner but before that we went a walk to find an ATM and a beer! 



We met the group, of which we are definitely the youngest, at 6.30pm and headed to a local restaurant. We were seated at a table of 10 which had a glass rotating table top; very handy as we had 9 different dishes shared between us! And Chrysanthemum tea! 





The food was amazing, particularly the sweet and sour chicken, pork balls and chicken kung po. So far the majority of the group are from Australia but there are a couple of English, Irish and us! There will be 29 in the group in total so we will see who arrives tomorrow. By the way, it was just over £2 a beer with dinner, much cheaper than home. 

After dinner we all headed back to the hotel as we meet at 8am tomorrow to officially start the tour....we may have nipped out for a couple more beers from the supermarket before retiring to the room and trying to figure out if we could perhaps watch the Champions League final at 2am!

Unti to tomorrow.....




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