So we’ve decided that for our annual trip, the destination
would be Beijing, the capital city of China. We flew Air China and arrived at 6
plus in the morning. Cold wind greeted us. We’re thrilled!!
Good Morning Beijing!!
The airport was humongous… and modern!! After disembarking, we took a sky train to
another complex for custom clearance and retrieve our luggage. My guess is that
this system buys time for security scans and what not. Impressive airport, but
why no air con?? Another 2 full loads of passengers disembarked around the same
time and the queue for custom clearance was ridiculous. By the time we were
out, it was near 8 in the morning. Our luggage was still nowhere in sight, yet…
Bad traffic greeted us
We were greeted by our tour guide and due to some miscommunication,
we had 2 missing members. They were not on the flight!! So they were abandoned,
and the rest of us were transported to our hotel. As expected, traffic jam. I
was feeling really dreadful and was glad that the day’s activity was postponed,
due to our missing tour members. Friends who had travelled with me know that I
hardly fell asleep onboard the plane and what’s worst, Air China do not come
with in-flight entertainment. Thus, I was grumpy and ready to crush into the
pillow. Forget about pictures, sleep is more important. The pictures were taken
on our last day after our room was tidied. We had some rest and our stomachs
started their protest. So our first meal *drum roll* - Mac Donald’s!!! Again,
can’t be bothered to take pictures since burgers can’t differ too much from
countries. =P
Our hotel room
So off we went for some self-exploration. And for a start,
we were conned. Hahaha!!! Who will pay RMB12 for a bottle of water? Silly us!!
Actually I knew that bottle of water was overpriced because I went to another
city of China just a few months ago. For that price, we bought a dozen bottles
of water from the supermarket that very same night.
Exploring on our own
The surrounding of our hotel isn't as happening as
advertised, and I suspected we went in the wrong direction. “Beijing can’t be
this boring!!”, we thought. So we traced our path towards the train station and
took a few stops down to the more happening area. RMB2 per pax, dirt cheap.
The famous CCTV building. Really impressive architecture
Town area was impressive. Huge, tall and mighty buildings
towering over us. Roads were congested and people everywhere. Well, I expected
and welcome that. By chance, we landed at Wangfujing shopping street and that
was how we spent our first day in Beijing.
Along one of the small alley
We headed back to the hotel at 6 pm to meet up with the rest
for dinner, before dropping by a supermarket and bought bottled water and a bag of grapes for our own consumption.
Our dinner - Not authentic Beijing food, but catered to foreigners to suit our taste bud Nevertheless, it was a delicious meal.
Stay tuned for the rest of our journey. =)
Tips: Tap water is not potable in China, and a bottle of water usually cost RMB 2. Anything more than that, you have been conned. My recommendation - NongFu Spring water, because it is tasteless. Go google!!
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