It was supposed to be a happy and stress-free day as I was due to leave London for Beijing, but due to the incompetent tour operator ("Bloody Awful" holidays) failing to book my room, I had to take the matter into my own hands. Logged onto the e-mail and got a reply to the message I sent to the president of Palace Hotel Beijing the night before. Hooray... they managed to find a room for us and I was glad that some companies did care about the customers. But I was still stressed the whole morning as the tour operator was not being very helpful.
Heathrow Terminal 4 was an absolute nightmare (too many travellers at check-in, dumb restaurant staff who didn't have a clue what they were doing...) and so I was quite ready to get out of the UK as soon as possible. After clearing through customs and walking towards Gate 20, I felt a bit more relaxed and into the holiday mood.
The flight to Beijing was full, with me easily being one of the youngest passengers.
As I didn't have much sleep the night before due to all the problems with
the tour operator, I kept dosing off once I settled into my seat. Managed
to wake up for the drinks and dinner. After watching a bit of a Chinese film,
Frasier and Will & Grace, I went back to sleep..... Zzzzzzz
Why was breakfast always so disgusting on the plane? The scramble egg was so hard that it could probably break the window.
The plane touched down at 9.25am. After a long walk from the gate to the new international terminal, we cleared through passport controls and picked up the luggage relatively quickly. Everywhere there were posters and billboards advertising Beijing as a contender for the host of 2008 Olympics. They lost it to Sydney for the 2000 Olympics fair and square (they are not really ready), but maybe they will be able to host this event successfully in 2008.
The traffic into Beijing was not too bad, and we arrived at the Palace Hotel
at about 11.30am. As usual, the room was really nice and comfortable. Had
a hot and relaxing shower before heading out to the Dong'An Market nearby
to get some snacks.
Now that the construction work in Wangfujang was completed, the short walk
from the hotel to Wangfujang Dajie didn't seem like hard work anymore. However,
crossing the road remained a challenge--- Traffic lights were largely ignored
by all the drivers and cyclists, and they were coming from every single direction.
No idea how I managed to get to the other side of the road in one piece.
In the afternoon, took a taxi to Liulichang antique street. As soon as we got off the cab, at least 5 people approached us within a span of 30 seconds, asking if we wanted to buy antiques. All I wanted to do was to have a look round the neighbourhood and took some photos, so I just ignored them.
After walking through a quieter street, we got to Dazhalan. The street was home to several well-known Chinese shops and so I made a pilgrimage stop at Tongrentang, a Chinese medicine shop which was established back in 1669. Also had a quick look at the preserved food sold at Liubijiu.
Made our way to Laoshe Teahouse at Qianmen Xi Dajie and enjoyed some Chinese tea while listening to live Chinese music performance. Since we didn't have any sleep since we arrived, we decided to have an early dinner before heading back to the hotel for an early night.
It's easy to choose the restaurant---- we knew we wanted Peking Duck, and so we headed straight to Quanjude just by the side of Tiananmen Square. Ordered a RMB168 Peking Duck special, as well as some Pak Choi (or what they call "Choi Xin" in Mandarin) and a plate of fried "mantao".
Until this evening, I never realised that I would ever get sick of duck. But there was so much duck in this dinner that (1) I suffered duck-phobia towards the end of the evening and (2) I actually felt like and smelt like a duck at the end of the meal. Still, the food was good and it only cost RMB111 per person!
Decided to walk back to the hotel after such a heavy meal. Learnt one thing: never trust a traffic warden, even when he gave you to go ahead and cross the road! Nearly got run over by cars as they just ignored the traffic lights.
Had a look round the new Oriental Plaza on Chang'An Street---- one big modern indoor shopping street. The Wangfujang Dajie was pedestrianised and there were neon signs everywhere. This was definitely not the Beijing that I knew from 2 years ago!
©2001-2007 AlbertChau.com. All rights reserved.
