Journey to the World

El-Al’s airplane landed on time in the international airport of Beijing. The Chinese waited with folded wheelchairs for the Israeli paralympic expedition. I went straight to border control and to get my bags.

In order to Baggage Claim you have to get on the light train inside the airport. It’s a free ride, but you have to get down in the correct station, where most passengers leaves the train. Digital billboards in the train show both English and Chinese directions. Without too much trouble you can easily find your way.

There were tens if not hundreds of blue olympic bags on the conveyor belt. All of which belong to the paralympic expedition. It took me forty minutes to locate my bag, not before I met another Israeli traveler who arrived to learn Mandarin in China. A Chinese cop accompanied with a sniffing dog found an apple in one of my bags. Turns out you cannot import fruit or vegetable into China. I could’ve got a serious fine, but the cop turned a blind eye with a smile.

I exchanged $200 USD in the airport. They charge a high commission here, no less than 60 yuan for every action. The exchange rate is low so it is not recommended to exchange hight amounts. In any case, you cannot pay for anything without Yuans so you don’t have too many choices.

You can take either a taxi or a Shuttle bus from the airport. The last is the cheaper amongst the two. Pay attention that each bus arrives in a different destination. This was the first time I found myself communicating with the locals, who did not speak English. I had no idea where I had  to go in Beijing so this started to look like a big mess. A quick check showed me I have to arrive in Qianmen street, next to Tiananmen Square. None of the buses arrives directly in Qianmen. Each was accompanied by a second bus, so I took my chances and got on bus number 16 (12 yuan).

In the last station I found myself in a Chinese street with no idea of where I am, how to get to my hotel or where is the second bus that will get me there.

Looking for English speaking people turned out to be useless. Everyone speaks Chinese only. I decided to test the efficiency of my Mandarin which I have learned in the past months (using audio tapes). To be honest, during the months before the flight I was fed up of learning so I had a long break in my studies which was followed by a short refresh a few days before the flight. What I learned was pretty rusty.

I tried my luck with a few Chinese locals. To my surprise, they actually understood what I asked them. It’s a pity I had no idea what they answered. I combined a few techniques developed back in Thailand of sign language together with my rusty Mandarin. It took me fifteen minutes to be on my way to bus number 9 taking me to Qianmen street. The problem with the streets in Beijing is that every street may have two names. One pointing to the west and the other to the east. Alternatively it may happen with north and west. The problem is for people who stumble upon this phenomenon for the first time, not knowing what is the meaning of directions in Chinese. And so I found myself talking to the ticket lady in stuttered Mandarin trying to figure out if I have to get down at Qianmen East or Qianmen West. Eventually it doesn’t matter for those who are willing to walk a little by foot.

So I’m finally in Qianmen street trying to figure out where is my hotel. The hotel was hiding inside one of the hutongs. The hutongs in Beijing are some sort of alleys crossing each other in an unclear pattern forming a big maze. Finding a house or a hotel located within these hutongs is an uneasy task to say the least. After walking for one hour around the hutongs, I located a local couple speaking a little English. They literally took my by hand to the entrence of the hotel. They lived near by, so they didn’t care.

In the evening I went walking in the close hutong till I arrived in the walking street of Tiananmen Square. The area is pretty at night due to the special lighting on the buildings. I took a photo of Quan Ju De (break some teeth to pronounce it correctly) famous all over China due to its Peking duck served there for hundereds of years.

A local professional photographer I met near the restaurant told me about the history of the restaurant. After that I headed to Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen and the walking street are closed to traffic. The special lightings turn the entire area to a place that is worth visiting at night. At 23:00 the lights turn off.

 

This article was published at 2-09-2008 Time: 17:53 and belongs to categories Beijing, Far East Travel Journal 2008 - 2009, Sichuan Province, Temples, China. You can follow comments to this article using the feed RSS 2.0. You can post a comment, or trackback from your website.