Beijing!

Welcome folks, this is your friendly wanna-be-journalist reporting from Beijing, the smoggy capital of China and site of the 2008 Olympic games. Things did not start off smoothly when two taxis decided not to show up in Singapore therefore causing the aforementined author to be late for his flight (again). However, even with the flight completely full and overbooked, he did not get his upgrade this time because he had already checked in via internet (doh!) When the flight arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport, it had to sit out on the taxiway for 20 minutes as there were no gates available for parking! Great way to prep for the Olympics.

Anyways, enough of this third-person thing. Feeling adventurous, I decided to catch the airport bus to Beijing Railway station, with a plan to catch a cab or walk to my hotel. When we got to the train station, I was ambushed by a bunch of women carrying brochures and cards for what looks like a travel agency (it's all in Chinese). They kept chasing me all over the place I literally had to swipe them away with my arm like you would with flies. Next thing I know, every exposed pocket on my daypack were stuffed full of these brochures and cards. Nothing stolen as these pockets are empty but why stuff them full when I'm just going to throw it away?

I kept walking, following the locals down the path towards the railway station proper, pretending to be one of them so I didn't get harassed. At the last minute, I saw the taxi rank and broke off and ran. :) Got in a cab and discovered that the cabbie does not speak English, does not know my hotel name in English and does not know the name of the road the hotel is in English. Again, great prep for the Olympics? Well, at least the cab was very clean. Anyway, an idea suddenly flashed up and I broke out my Insight Fleximap that came with my China Insight guide. Nope, he had no idea what the map means and couldn't even recognise the Forbidden City! OK...next idea, I started reading out road names, "Wangfujing Dajie" and immediately his eyes lit up and he started nodding his head, "Ya ya". So I proceeded to find the cross road and read it out, "Dengshikou Dajie" and he gave me a confused look again. So I tried variations of the pronunciation and he started nodding his head again, "Ya ya". Woo hoo! At last he knew where I wanted to go! I have made a note to myself to always carry the hotel details written in Chinese when I go out later today.

By the time I reached the hotel, it was already 5.30pm. I'm staying at the Crowne Plaza thanks to Wotif, (warning: plug) one of the best hotel websites I've used time and time again. It's not too bad but my room's window faces the atrium in this square hotel so no natural sunlight for me. I decided to catch a quick nap since I only slept four hours the night before and ended up waking up at 8pm, just in time for the Man U vs Man City game on ESPN, one of the few English channels I can get here. The other English channels were CNN, BBC and CCTV. Hmm...

So I was watching the news and they flashed footage of visitors at Forbidden City and the Great Wall. There were more than 100,000+ visitors and the news reported that authorities are thinking of closing the attractions because of the overload! At the Great Wall, it was wall-to-wall (pardon the pun) full of people taking up every inch of walking space! Sigh...I knew I should have planned this better. There goes my idea of a nice relaxing walk along the wall, contemplating life and it's many mysteries. Why are there so many people? I forgot it's the week long labour day holidays in China (they have a name for it - can't remember off the top of my head). I think CNN once called it one of the biggest human population movements/migrations on earth as the prosperous Chinese now look at ways to spend their hard earned fortunes.

At 9.30pm, I decided to go out and look for something to eat. According to the concierge, I only had to walk southwards on Wangfujing Avenue (I guess that's what "Dajie" means) and there will be plenty to eat. According to my short tour brochure picked up from the hotel, this is the shopping district. As soon as I stepped out of the hotel, there was a bunch of girls at the traffic lights waiting to ambush tourists. I had no idea what they were pushing but I could guess because the words "KTV" kept popping up. Sigh...

The weather was nice and cool, which is a good change from hot and humid Singapore although the air is as polluted as Jakarta (my eyes were watery, throat feels sore, etc. etc.)

Anyways, was walking southwards, obeying traffic rules, etc. when I was almost run over by a f***ing crazy bus (second time since I arrived!) Here's a tip, it doesn't matter if the pedestrian light says "Go". If the bus wants to go, the bus wants to go. Scared the beegeezers out of me as my life flashed two inches in front of me. And oh yeah, I didn't know they drive on the right hand side of the road here, which is why I almost got run over by the airport bus the first time. Note to self - must do more research next time. I've been to Beijing before but that was a long, long time ago so I can't really remember anything.

I walked for something like twenty minutes and couldn't find anything that resembled a restaurant, only Mackers and KFC. I have not flown 2,500 miles to eat fast food! So, I decided to be a little more adventurous and start exploring the tiny lanes around the area. Yep, found a few restaurants but they were all closing! Arrgh. I turned down another alleyway and hit the jackpot. It was rows and rows and rows of hawker style stalls.


The funny thing is they were all serving the same four types of food you could find. I wonder why there's no variety? The food looked a bit suspect but the BBQ ones looked good. I was really not in the mood for BBQ though (ask Pete and Eva why) so decided that just for the first night, I'll eat in the hotel (which I really REGRETTED - read on why further down) and go explore the next day.

I wonder if it's cheap to buy Chinese made goods in China? Sounds like a silly question. I have to go check it out later. One of the more interesting shops was this Nike-look-a-like brand. It sells similar sporting apparel goods and it's logo was like a slightly mangled/warped version of the more famous global brand logo.

Yeah, I came back to the hotel and the only restaurant that was still open was the cafe downstairs. To try and save money, and plus the fact that I wasn't really hungry even at 11pm, I ordered one caesars salad and a bowl of wonton soup plus a diet coke. My bill came up to 170 yuan!!! That's about SGD$34 or about AUD$28. ARGH! Them BBQ sticks out there in the stalls cost 4 yuan each! That's it...I am going to eat out tonight no matter what. The good thing about this room package from Wotif is that it includes breakfast and the buffet spread is quite good. *burp* - pardon me. :-)

OK, it's 11.30am, I will have to start my walk towards the Forbidden City before they close at 4pm. Fingers crossed I'll be able to take some photos. I'm not expecting a nice peaceful stroll but hey, I'll be standing in a palace that was built in 1406 by a million labourers and was home of the emperors. Will post pictures later. I have my proper 3 megapixel camera with me so no more grainy 1.2 megapixel mobile phone ones.

Ciao!

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