**This post is unfinished. Check back later for photos.
Getting to Beijing was a little bit of an ordeal. The train we were going to take ended up being sold out so we had to fly. Flights were much cheaper flying out if Shenzhen, a city just across the border into mainland China, as opposed to flying out of HK. Our flight was at 11am so just to be safe we left on the 7:45 airport bus. This bus line advertises a 75 minute travel time including the stop at immigration. The bus leaves a little late but we get to immigration at a reasonable time, 8:45 or so. I never would have imagined what would come next. Everyone grabs their luggage and RUNS to the building. The front is just a big crowd and they aren't even letting people in. Lots of buses are already there and more keep arriving. They open the doors again at around 9 and it's a free for all to the first checkpoint - visa , the next checkpoint - declaration of good health, and the last checkpoint - declaration of goods. There are no lines and no order. If you don't scoot up the half foot in front of you to basically spoon someone then some tiny Asian woman will swoop you. You just have to do the Asian shuffle the whole way through.
We ended up not getting to the Air China counter at 10:35 where they told us we were too late to make our flight. Trying to get on another was pretty difficult as well. People don't speak nearly as much english as they do in HK and there were a few good samaritans that we owe Beijing to. After trying to sell us a second set of tickets, one Air China lady wrote down the word standby in Chinese as well as all the flights to Beijing and their departure times that day. Just handing a paper to someone is so much easier. She tells us that the next flight is at 1 and to go to the counter at 12:30 to see if we can get on. In doing so we find the same pushing and shuffling necessary as in the visa office. It doesnt take long to see that you're supposed to push your way to the front, yell things, an wave papers to peoples faces to get what you want. Of you don't you'll never get picked! We don't get picked until 11:45 ... And turns out we need to be put on a list and should have come there straight away. There are 10 standby passengers ahead of us and we don't get on this flight or the next one. We finally get on the 4pm flight which is expected to land at 7. And it would have if there weren't 29 planes queued up to take off in front of it. Delayed on the plane until 6:30.
We arrive at 9:30pm and take a bus to the metro station and the metro to Qianmen in Xuanwu, the neighborhood where our hostel is. The room is pretty nice and has an overhead shower, unlike the HK one, as well as free interwebz (but china blocks a bunch of sites including blogger and facebook which is part of the reason why these are so delayed).
Temple of Heaven
Tianamen Square
Mao's embalmed body is here
We took a motorbike cab sort of thing from the forbidden city north entrance to tianamen square because we got there too late to make going in to the city worth it. We had heard it was necessary to negotiate fares beforehand or they'll charge you an outrageous amount. We did...but it happened anyway. The agreed upon fare was 30 yuan/rmb but when we arrived he swears he said 30 dollars. He tries to point to some laminated paper but Kevin yells "no way" at him. It was EPIC. Kev holds out 40 yuan (we didnt have a 10) and says something like "okay then 20" and takes a bill away. The cabbie's jaw drops and the guy giggles. He knew he was trying to swindle us and that was not going to fly with Kev. We end up giving him 40 yuan for lack of exact change.
Forbidden City
This was pretty rushed because the ticket line was so freakin long. We started in the outermost line but somehow people formed a second line to the same ticket window and tried to merge with us. More trouble than it was worth. We just went to a neighboring line.
Great Wall
About an hour by train each way. We both fell asleep and I woke up with a view of the wall.
You aren't a real man until you've climbed the wall. Well I'm a real man...whose quads kinda hurt.
Got some sweet shoes for 5 bucks! Annnnd a shirt with a panda doing martial arts forms (from this Kung Fu show we went to)
Annnnnnnnnd a panda hat from the great wall. Radical.
No comments:
Post a Comment