Happy New Year of the Rat!
I realize its been awhile since I have done a group email, apologizes about this. I am currently on route to Beijing for work on Friday, and will spend the weekend sightseeing. Am super excited as its my first trip in Asia outside of Hong Kong.
I finally moved into my apartment January 7th and thankfully have basically everything sorted. Had my first visitor within a couple of weeks of moving in. Am really enjoying living by myself and out of the hassle and bassle of HK. I take a 25 minute ferry ride to work each day. This morning I was super early and had the luck of seeing the sun rise, an amazing sight no matter where in the world you are!
Goodness getting on the plane seemed to be an effort! I had checked in my bag before going to work (they have a mini airport in central) then made my way to the airport by train. I had time to visit the lounge before leaving however had to walk half way across Africa to find it to be told I couldn't enter. You could imagine how impressed I was!!!! At the gate everyone is lining up before the gates open, then on the plane its all for one! I swear I nearly lost it a few times. Give me strength for the return trip.....
Of course air travel is never simple with me....we arrived around 30 minutes early, great, however there was no gate so we're hanging out on the runway until it becomes available. (Its allowing me to check my emails which is a positive.) A gate never came free so we packed in the middle of the runaway and had buses transport us to the terminal. Of course parking on the other side of the world, it takes forever for the bags to arrive. Nothing like wasting time at an airport.
I was fortunate enough to have a driver waiting for me when I finally walked out, and thank goodness for that as I'm sure I'd still be working out where to go. His English is hello, yes, no so I'm pleased I don't need to inform him of where I'm going, its all been arranged :)
My hotel was around a 30 minute ride, 5 lane motorway, from the airport. Nothing too exciting to view apart from lots of Chinese signs (I of course know not one!), leafless trees and the sun poking out through the pollution.
Checked into my amazing hotel. Would love to take photos of the lobby however I don't believe its done!!!
Am now sitting at a restaurant recommended by the hotel, no one speaks English which of course I'm finding very hard! Not sure how long I'll last here.......thankfully I brought a book. Managed to order a Gin Fizz sitting at the bar, there was certainly gin but the fizz was a missing! After seeing a bug on the bar I couldn't get out of there quick enough!!!!! I was straight back to the hotel quick smart and enjoyed a yummy bowl of Japanese noodles while reading my book. Half of the wait staff (which were all female) were dressed in the tradition Japanese clothing.
Friday I was in the office, it was unbelievable quiet and very different to the other Lehman offices. I believe the total number of people is around 20. The views were amazing and given it was a nice day (around 15 degrees) you could see for miles and miles. I couldn't get over the constant stream of traffic and as the day got on it turned into a parking lot. The day went well but I was glad when it was over.
We finished around 6pm on Friday which was great although the roads were a parking lot so I didn't leave until 7pm, then the fun started. Getting a taxi in Beijing seemed rather difficult on Friday night, although given close to 15 million people live here I suppose I cannot complain. Elena (from the office) came down with me and made sure I was ok and thank goodness for that as it took forever to get a taxi. I had the hotel address written in Chinese however she told the driver where to take me. My driver was great, literally zero English yet he kept talking to me :). He had a book with sayings which I had fun reading. It will be interesting to see how everyone gets on during the Olympics.
I checked into the hotel, dropped my bag then headed straight to the restaurant for dinner. Thankfully traffic wasn't as bad, although the roads certainly weren't clear.
The restaurant was super nice, had a special 'bat' door.....it took me awhile to work out how one is suppose to enter. My appetizer (Field of Dreams) came out with a vase and tree in the middle of the plate. If only I could have taken a photo (it wouldn't have come out). Dinner was wasabi crusted prawns, they were divine if not a tad on the hot side.
I managed to hail a cab all by myself :) and hand him the piece of paper - no English was exchanged at all.
Saturday morning I was up at the crack of dawn, in fact before the crack of dawn at the lovely hour of 6am. Today's the day I'm heading to the Great Wall and my excitement level is like a 5 year olds. On our drive out of this huge city I was fortunate to see a lot of different sights - many groups of people doing tai chai, army men standing every 100 metres (the government is in town I was told), half the population on bikes, people walking their dogs, kfc everywhere, modern and Chinese style buildings, construction sites everywhere and the best basically the roads empty.....well empty Beijing style.
My guide has just told us it will be between 7 to 9 degrees high, goodness me where has the sunshine gone too. Up the Great Wall its at least 5 degrees lower. Thank goodness I have my thermal clothes :)
Our first stop was the Qing Tombs where we went into the Chang Ling tomb.
No tour goes by without stopping off at some "cheap factory stores". First stop was the jade factory. No purchases from any of the group which I don't think pleased our guide. From here we drove to the Great Wall - what a site!!! I don't think I was quite prepared for how big it was, even though the weather wasn't clear you could see for miles. We took the lazy way up, a cable car type thing. This allowed one of the guys and I to walk to the peak. It was amazing to be walking on the great wall. We stopped for photos and I was also included in a few photos....rather strange! At the peak we both for a medal :).
From the Great Wall we headed to lunch, a Chinese lunch was included in the tour. However we had to go through the ground floor first and yes you guessed it another factory! Lunch was ok, certainly nothing to write home about. More Western Chinese and they served French fries. From here we headed back into Beijing, with the last stop being at a tea factory to be given a tea ceremony. This was quite cool, we were given 5 different teas to taste. One was rather foul. Again no purchases from the group which they weren't too happy about.
I was dropped back to the hotel around 4.30pm.
From the hotel I walked to Tiananmen Square, had a wander around then managed to get myself into a taxi and to the pearl market. Mental note, never go there by yourself. It wasn't unsafe, however was very frustrating as it was huge and if you happen to casually look at a stall they were all over you! I was ready to leave when it closed at 7pm. Again managed to get into a taxi after laughing at one when he tried to charge me more than double, who did he think he was messing with.
I tried out a local restaurant close to the hotel that the hotel recommended. Had yummy duck and pork dumplings, and Yan Jing beer the "official sponsor of the 2008 Beijing Olympics".
Sunday I was up bright and early (7am), checked out of the hotel and went straight to the Forbidden City. What an amazing site this is! I decided just to wonder around myself rather than get a guide. I had my trusty guide book to advise what the buildings were where as well as the signs written in both Chinese and English.
From her I wandered back to the hotel by gut, saw a few more local sights - postman on bike delivering the mail (I have photo!); washing being hung to dry between 2 trees on the pavement; locals walking/biking with their produce.
I decided to brave it and headed to the Silk Market, this place is huge! And like the pearl market last night would have been better having someone to go around with. It gets very tiring very quickly being asked the same question and if you happen to touch something "you like, I give you good price". I needed to get out quickly. Started walking towards my hotel (I would still be walking now if I wanted to walk the whole way) before getting a taxi. Decided on a Japanese restaurant for a late lunch.
My friendly driver from Thursday was at the hotel to greet me to take me to the airport. Nice and easy!!!!
We arrived early and thankfully got a gate straight away! HK airport really is fantastic, I walked straight off the plane through customs, collected trolley, walked to belt and there was my luggage - a great end to a great weekend!
I realize its been over a week that I wrote some of the above, apologizes its taken so long to send it. I hope everyone is doing well and has a great weekend. Next trip is to Kiwi land in two weeks.
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