Beijing, China (GMT +8)

(Originally written by Fuji on November 7, 2010)

Hotel Shangri-La reflected on another building

Good morning! What a long, interesting day I had yesterday, Saturday, November 6! I'm sitting here at my desk in room #1105 in the Shangri-LA, Kerry Centre Hotel, Beijing, starting my blog of yesterday... it's 0530L.

Let me start from the beginning in Shanghai on my day of departure....

Was up again very early ~0330, and got a head start on work e-mail. I'd packed earlier to about 95% with only a few items left to put away.  Before I knew it, it was 0600 and I ran down to Tables Restaurant on the lobby level for a good breakfast. Enjoyed some fried rice, bacon, 4 hash rounds, 2 mini-egg rolls, some OJ and hot green tea - good. :-)

The day prior I had coordinated with the Concierge for a livery ride back to Pu Dong airport ~50km by car. The fee is right at $125US (threw in a 20rmb tip). I had considered being a bit more adventurous by cabbing to a maglev train station for a high speed ride to the airport but, decided against it... would have entailed too much thought on my part in order to make my flight to Beijing.  Maybe next time. Ran upstairs, gathered up my luggage, laptop and camera bag, and went back down to the lobby to check out. I was outside waiting for my ride at 0635 - too early, I'd set-up a 7am pick-up, so had to wait for 10mins when my ride showed up.  Goodbye Portman Ritz-Carlton!

As I understand it, one should plan on a 1hr trip to/fm the Pu Dong airport on normal traffic days.  Shanghai's Pu Dong Airport location-wise is comparable to what Dulles International is to Washington, DC. Has the feel of Dulles as I remember it over 25 years ago when Dulles wasn't being used much due to the proximity of Reagan National and BWI to DC... very under used with a ton of excess capacity.  However, on this early Saturday morning, the traffic was very light and the trip only took about 45mins. Arrived at the airport ~0730.

Pu Dong airport is ginormous! 2 huge terminals that just appear and feel to go on forever. Since my flight was domestic, I was dropped off at Terminal 1 where China Eastern has a large presence. Airports are airports but, this one just feels different coming from my Western bias (pretty sure I'll feel the same about Beijing's airport).  Hard to put into words why it feels familiar yet quite foreign... it just does, from ticketing layout counters, security procedures to gates. Even the proprietor's within the terminal look familiar but are different - not bad different, just different. I believe that one of the things that causes me some mental churn is the effort the Chinese go to in their translation of signage into English. A chain of food vendors in the terminal were called 'Tuck' something or another. Kinda reminds me of the Australian term for food; 'tucker'.

Found the ticketing counter in the terminal, and there are many of them, and it wasn't busy at all. There was someone there to answer my questions and directed me into the correct queue to begin check-in. Handed over my passport, they took my two bags, asked me my preferred seating, aisle, and printed out my boarding pass on China Eastern Flt#5129 to Beijing. I was in seat 5C.

Next, as you walk towards security, they stop you along the way and basically herd you into a 'pen' in small groups while taking wipes of anything you're carrying.  It's their bomb sniffing check. The interesting part of this procedure is that the same 'swab' is used on everyone's items. No individual swabs. They then check the swab and walla, release everyone. I guess it makes alot of sense to just swab everyone... if there is a bomb, doesn't really matter who has it on their person, everyone gets blown up! :-)

Security is fronted by check-in lines that look to double as customs check points. You hand over your boarding pass, passport and they take your picture digitally. From there you go to security. Much easier than in the US. You place all your items on the conveyor, take out your laptops, empty your pockets and walkthrough!! Ahhhh, reasonable security. No stripping all the way down to your skivies and removing your shoes.

My A320 to Beijing at Terminal 6

My gate, gate #6, was located at the very farthest end of the terminal - way, way, down the terminal - which seems to be typical of whenever I travel abroad. They do have people movers unfortunately, many Chinese tend to use them as just that, movers, and they just stand on them effectively clogging the way... no using them to walk faster as we do in the West.  Much more relaxed about travel.  Having said that, if you are late to a flight at Shanghai's Pu Dong airport, you better be ready to pull your best 'OJ Simpson Hertz' commercial act because you may have a loooooong way to run to get to your gate - as happened to about 20 people on my flight to Beijing :-). Most of them were young people but, they were out of breath and sweating.

By the way, the whole process that I've blundered my way through above only took about 30mins total. Way fast!

Got to the gate at around 0800 and had until 0900 to board for a 0930 scheduled departure so, went over to the nearby chain coffee shop in the terminal, the Hope Star Coffee Shop, and bought a 39rmb($6US) small latte to pick me up. Gotta say that the Chinese traveler, generally speaking, is very quiet and reserved.

Boarding is very similar to what we're accustomed to; by class, folks that need extra time due to age/capacity and/or elite level, followed by rows from the back. Boarding is announced in Chinese and English. The gate attendants also hold up multi-lingual signs stating which rows are boarding - similar to how round numbers are displayed between rounds at a boxing match however, without the glitter. :-) Folks also tend to fly with less and carry smaller bring aboards which I appreciated since I have my heavy laptop case, camera bag and Freckles, who by the way, is a low maintenance traveler and my constant companion. :-)

We boarded right on time but lingered at the gate until 0945 (waiting on stragglers). Wheels-n-well right at 0955 and we landed in Beijing after an uneventful flight at 1135, a bit ahead of schedule. 

Side note: During the flight, lunch was advertised to be served. So, about an hour into the flight the attendants started serving. Lunch consisted of a sandwich, Chinese style: they remove all the crust from the bread (something I saw all over Shanghai when I saw sandwiches) and cut it in half for you. The surprise for me was that 1/2 of the sandwich was tuna and lettuce, the other half was turkey with lettuce and tomato!  I liked it... was a tad odd but tasty.

All during the descent into Beijing you could not see the ground. Thought that was strange. As we got lower and lower, staring out the window was like looking through a translucent veil, hazy and smokey as far as the eye can see. I know they have the occasional sandstorm here in Beijing but, I have a sneaking suspicion the very poor visibility has to do with the ~6million vehicles in the city of ~15million.  They have gridlock issues - bigtime.

Beijing Airport, Carousel 15

Disembarking was easy. No customs to go through, just a walk to baggage claim carosel #15. Took about 30mins to get my 2 bags and walk out to exit #9 where I was met by my Dell Chinese colleague, Jeff (chosen Western name... real name Hu). He was gracious and very accomodating of me. He certainly didn't need to go out of his way to welcome me here in Beijing on his Saturday but, he wanted to and I was very pleased and appreciative of his gesture. He not only picked me up in order to forgo my adventure with a taxi out of the airport but, took me to my hotel, did lunch with me, and also took me sightseeing to whatever I wanted to go see in the dim daylight remaining! I like him - first impressions: he's a good guy.

Bird's Nest in the background

Lots of traffic for a Saturday - Jeff agrees with that assessment... not sure why. Jeff owes up the poor visibility to time of year, weather conditions and pollution due to vehicular smog. Took about 45mins to get to the hotel between the 2nd and 3rd rings around the forbidden city. The rings are all beltways around the Forbidden City.  Believe there are 6 formal rings expanding outward around Beijing.

Side note #2: Everything here in Beijing is centered and referenced to the Forbidden city. There was a time way back when - and scholars are still debating the historical significant of Chinese exploration - Chinese mariners based all of their not insignificant at sea navigation on the reference point of Beijing in China... quite similar to how we today in modern times use Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as our global point of reference out of England.

Jeff parked under the hotel complex while I checked into my room, 1105, and we met in the Lobby for dinner at a restaurant called: the South Beauty Spicy Restaurant. Supposedly, very popular spot for the ladies to have lunch. Lunch was decidedly over as we entered and we sat down to enjoy a very late meal. Was quite tasty. What Jeff ordered for us as the main course, was similar to shabu-shabu that Rosie and I have had at Fujiyama's Japanese restaurant in Mansfield, where you cook the food yourself at your table. The difference with this set-up was that the beef and veggies came with a clear, pyrex bowl filled with 200+ degrees Celsius hot oil that roiled about and steamed a ton when the waitress put the beef and veggies into it.  You let it cook/sit for only 2mins and then you serve and eat out of that cauldron of heated oil... oiishi!!  We also had small bowls of white rice and a couple of spicy/garlic vegetables as side dishes. Good meal and I enjoyed it immensely.

My host and friend, Jeff

Picked up the tab and we headed out to do some sightseeing in the haze of the afternoon. I asked Jeff and he obliged to take me out to the Olympic village and their National Stadium aka, the 'bird's nest', that really made a statement to the world when Beijing hosted the Olympics in 2008. Very impressive and a massive complex. Rivals sprawling Tian-amen Square as far as sheer geographical footprint goes.  Parking... you don't appreciate it viewed on TV or when you're walking around the complex but, all the parking is underground.

Me in front of the Olympic Bird's Nest

Beijing's National Stadium aka:  Olympic 'Bird's Nest'

Me in front of the Aquatic Center aka 'Water Cube'

Map of Beijing's Olympic Park

Unique light towers in Olympic Par

The cost of building this whole complex was significant and I'm not sure whether China's recouped any profit from their expenditure... although the tangible intangible; world prominence and enhanced reputation may have been well worth the monetary cost for this giant country. To make some profit on the structure, the Chinese actually built a fence all around the stadium in order to require anyone wanting to tour the inside, have to pay a fee for entrance. We chose not to do so and walked the extended circumference. Plenty to see outside the fence. Jeff tells me that the stadium is only 10% utilized for activity around planned 'official' events. The remaining 90% of the time, the stadium is available for tourists and visits. I took quite a few photos of the 'bird's nest' and some photos of the aquatics center aka, the 'water cube', indoor stadium and Ling Long Pagoda, not to mention just shots of folks hanging out, peddlers selling their wares and more tourists like me.

Ling Long Pagoda

Made the entire circuit around the stadium and headed back down to parking. Had a nice extended conversation with Jeff as we strolled and he was good enough to take some photo's of me in front of the different structures. My 1/2 dozen Chinese words can't even compare to his conversational English. Jeff wanted to take me to see another landmark, the Heavenly Temple but, traffic and fading daylight made for a very long ride and so I had him take me back to the hotel so he could get back home to his wife at a reasonable time. What a good day. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Back at the hotel, had an apple and laid down, beat, at 1830 and fell asleep. Still acclimating to that whole time change thing. :-)

My hotel room at Shangri-La

Freckles helping me blog

Wow! This is a really long blog... and I could add more but, let me close up for now. I need to get out and see more of Beijing on this Sunday!

More later...