18/9 Beijing bound

Sunday Sept 18th

Sedate start to catch the 11.30 Sichuan Airways flight to Beijing, which left about 2.30. The Chinese boarded with vast quantities of “cabin baggage” and we ended up with our backpacks under the seats. Luckily only 2 hour flight. We decided to take a walk on the wild side and found our own way to the hotel. The airport express was an excellent train and the city subways are reminiscent of Singapore. So are the passengers. Here they paint lines on the platform and the Beijingois duly line up along these. But the moment before the doors open, they all rush forward and block the doors. Fabulous. Our only gripe is that they haven’t got the idea about escalators. We climbed a hell of a lot of stairs getting out of the subway and crossing the big roads. With rucksacks :o(

We found our way round the loop line to the stop just South of Tiananmen square (adjacent stations include Fuchengmen and Fuxingmen as well as Xuanwomen), stepping out of the subway to a sunset pink sky backing a beautiful traditional Chinese building and sure enough the hotel was a 6 minute walk away. And it is Beautiful. For $30 a night you really shouldn’t expect this luxury. Free wifi of course. We walked out of the restaurant after 5 minutes and wandered down the street looking for a busy restaurant. A happy Chinese lady almost dragged us into her place and handed us a pot of tea while she brandished her menu. Luckily it was a lot of colour photos but it was hard to guess what the dishes were so there was a lot of improvised Moooooing, clucking and gestures of fish swimming and sketched octopi. She thought this was just too jolly. We settled for 2 dishes of ginger shitaki mushrooms and chicken (perhaps) bits in a dark sauce with nuts and spring onion. And a large fried rice. And cans of coke. After all that she asked for $10.

China is very modern western. High rise everywhere, nice cars, smart infrastructure. Western clothes, much of it trendy and some of it excellent taste and quality. Mobile phones or tablets are de rigeur. No pyjamas, bicycles or rickshaws. Ok we saw 2 this afternoon.

J is poring over a heap of papers about the Forbidden City etc with a glint which bodes ill for a day of extended dragging around the grand monuments. An early night is called for .

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