Beijing, Beijing, ChinaON OUR WAY TO RUSSIA - JOURNEY FROM SYDNEY TO BEIJING
Beijing was our first stop on our "long road " to Anadyr, Chukotka in far north-eastern Russia; a journey that would take us a whopping six days to complete even though our mode of transport was mostly by air.
Our travels however were fraught with logistical difficulties. Of the seventeen flights to our various destinations over the next five weeks, most were irregular with some only operating once or twice per week. And with many being in Arctic locations, there was every chance of bad weather causing delays or even cancellations. To miss a connecting flight on any of our travel legs would be devastating for the completion of our journey. It was, to say the least, a nerve-wracking undertaking - and no wonder that our Russian travel agents were not keen to take us to such remote destinations.
From Beijing we were initially planning to catch a "once per week" flight to Khabarovsk in Siberia. With only a few hours connection time however, we finally decided it was far too chancy to risk our entire program and at the last minute we changed our itinerary to stay an additional day in Beijing. And thank goodness we did....
A NOT-SO-GOOD START - AN EIGHT HOUR DELAY AT SYDNEY AIRPORT
Sydney International Airport should be commended for its professionalism in processing its many travellers. Well, that is in more recent years. And we know it wasn't always that way... Admittedly, we were travelling Business Class on the leg to Beijing but our entire experience from check-in and through Customs and Immigration was both efficient and friendly. Unlike many overseas airports we have visited in more recent times, Sydney International Airport provides an Express Lane for First and Business Class passengers, and its business lounges are world class.
To our disappointment, there was a two hour delay on our China Eastern Airlines flight due to typhoon activity in the China Sea. We should not have been surprised. We knew it was the typhoon season and we had been caught up in similar lengthy delays and/or flight re-directions many times in the past with flights to and from China.
We consoled ourselves. After all, the Sky Team Lounge was not the worst place in which to be delayed. We would just have to sit back in comfort and enjoy our drinks and food - and thankfully we didn't have to worry about flight connections in Beijing.
We didn't have to try very hard. Sitting opposite us Richard and Malcolm from Murwillumbah on the North Coast of New South Wales, were flying out to Sri Lanka for their honeymoon. Enthusiastic about their recent wedding and coming holiday, the vivacious couple kept us totally entertained for some time before their flight was called. They were great company and good fun.
As it happened our flight ended up being delayed for another six hours, during which time we met with several families including Annette and Ian from Wagga Wagga in the south-west of New South Wales.
They laughed that their holiday to Indonesia was quite by accident. A member of their family had won a luxury villa holiday in Bali at a charity night, but at the last minute was unable to spare the time. And as the villa housed ten people, Annette and Ian, and several other family members decided they would use the prize instead.
A friendly couple in the real estate business, they chatted to us about their recent acquisition of the iconic old Loftus Hotel (now known as the Loftus on Humphrys Hotel in Junee, a country town some 40 kilometers from Wagga), which they had refurbished as a bed and breakfast facility.
We were particularly interested about their recount of a group of mainland Chinese working on short term visas who were using the hotel for their living accommodation.
Annette and Ian were very sympathetic to the new arrivals, explaining that although the Chinese workers had found it difficult to adjust to a completely new culture and environment, they assimilated well and were great contributors to the economy of the town. In their own words, the Chinese workers were a "god send" to Junee. Their stories were absorbing and refreshingly positive. In days of disturbing nationalism, rising racism and prejudice toward refugees, it was as we said to Annette and Ian - "quite music to our ears"....
And in no time, a few more hours had slipped by....
BEIJING VIA NANJING
Beware of Customs & Immigration Procedures For Beijing Flights Via Nanjing
I have to give it to Alan. He does an incredible amount of research as well as all the bookings for our overseas travels, and is a real wiz at finding cheap - and often rather obscure flights.... In fact there was a memorable occasion when he was so good at it he nearly got us stuck permanently in Iran when he booked flights through the dubiously named company Cheapo Air - but again that is another story....
Dismayed at the many flights totally booked out because of the late organisation of our trip, Alan had been delighted to find return flights with China Eastern Airlines* from Sydney to Beijing via Nanjing, that were not only available in Business Class but very reasonably priced. Yes, like the old adage "you get what you pay for" there were good reasons for the competitive fares - one of which was the second leg of the trip from Nanjing to Beijing was classified as a domestic journey resulting in us having to obtain Chinese visas**. The other issue we came across was on our return leg from Beijing to Shanghai....
*We usually travelled with China Eastern Airlines to our various destinations via Shanghai, and had been happy with the flights and service. The fares were always very cost competitive and certainly the cheapest way we could travel Business Class on the long legs of our travels.
**Beijing, like Shanghai and a number of other major centres in China, is now visa free for passengers travelling direct to each city and staying no longer than 144 hours.
Our flight ended up being delayed for some eight hours, departing Sydney at 4:40 pm.
The trip to Nanjing however, was very pleasant and it was not at all hard for us to enjoy a delicious meal of abalone, prawns in a seaweed salad. The food with China Eastern is always good. But on this occasion, the airline excelled itself.
We arrived in Nanjing in the early hours of the next morning. Fortunately we knew that our Immigration and Customs procedures would be undertaken here, prior to our arrival in Beijing.***
***It should be noted that if passengers are unaware of this arrangement, their arrival in Nanjing can be extremely confusing. On a previous trip to Beijing via Nanjing, we found out this information quite by accident. Even our travel agent was unaware of these procedures.
For some reason, it appeared that we were the only Business Class passengers who were making the connecting flight in Nanjing - goodness knows where the Economy connecting passengers went. And even though we knew we had to find Customs, the signage at the airport for in-transit passengers was extremely confusing. We asked some of our flight crew who were walking ahead of us, and they laughed saying "Come with us. We will show you!"
Well, after a very long walk through the airport, it was apparent we were all lost. It was one of those disturbing situations when you realise how frightening it would be, to be on your own in an empty foreign airport in the early hours of the morning - and with limited time for a connecting flight. We finally found Customs but without the crew, it would have been very difficult.
Customs and Immigration took forever. The queues were endless and the processing staff was limited to two officials. And in China, there are no Express Lanes for Business Class. After queuing for over an hour, we were dismayed to find our flight to Beijing was delayed by yet another two hours....
A BRIEF TIME IN BEIJING
A Fine Welcome to Beijing
By the time we arrived at our Grand Mercure Central Hotel at 8:00 am Beijing Time, we had been travelling for some twenty four hours - and not surprisingly we were feeling absolutely wrecked. To our delight however, upon check in we found we had been upgraded to an Executive Suite on the hotel's Club Floor Level. Furthermore, we were granted a very late check out with use of the hotel's Club Floor Lounge. It was a total surprise and we were very appreciative.
The hotel was really lovely; beautifully appointed and the staff was friendly and helpful. In our opinion it was an excellent choice and we would highly recommend it as a centrally located and very good hotel.
We had only a part of day in Beijing as our next flight to Khabarovsk, Russia departed in the early hours of the next morning. There was no time for serious sightseeing - which was probably just as well as we were in no state for walking long distances or for touring the city. And after all, we had been to Beijing several times previously.
"There are Nine Million Bicycles in Beijing - That's a Fact...."
Iconic sites Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City and Palace complex were within easy walking distance of our hotel. Being Sunday and a busy day for local sightseers, we decided not to visit the popular palace. Conversely, a quiet stroll to Tiananmen Square, sounded much more suitable, especially given our tiredness from two days of non-stop travel.
Alan had been actively involved with leading Asian companies and trade opportunities in the Asian region, and I had been organising related management conferences during the time of the 1988 Tiananmen Massacre. The tragic event had etched deep and terrible memories for us both, and although we had visited Tiananmen Square some years before, it still held a special yet bizarrely fascinating memory.
On a hot sunny day, the first part of our walk was very pleasant. Many of the modern buildings in Beijing were attractive, often a sympathetic blend of western and Chinese architecture. Others however were big, bold and brash. It's the scale of the city infrastructure which always surprises us. It is all massive, and even considering walking a few blocks - which looks so tiny on a map of the city - often means several kilometers.
Pleasingly the city streets and buildings were lined with well maintained trees and gardens; sculptured flower beds, topiary trees and huge rock features creating interesting pockets of peace in the midst of busy traffic and the scorching ten lane highway of Chang'an Avenue.
From our brief observations, Beijing had changed enormously from our first visits during the early 2000's when city roads were choked with bicycles and motor bike carts. The broad multiple lane highway of Chang'an Avenue was instead filled with flash upmarket vehicles, with very few bikes, neither push pedalled nor motorised in sight.
Looking at a very different and much more affluent Beijing, I thought of Katie Melua's catchy hit song "Nine Million Bicycles in Beijing". At the time, the number of bicycles was widely disputed, and although no-one could come up with an accurate figure for Beijing city of course, it was asserted the number was more likely to be between 13 to 14 million. Bike sharing is huge business in China and staggering statistics reveal that in the year 2018, there were 400 million bike-share users registered in the country!
"There are nine million bicycles in Beijing.
That's a fact,
It's a thing we can't deny,
Like the fact that I will love you 'till I die...." (lyrics to Nine Million Bicycles in Beijing, Mike Batt, 2008)
That's a fact,
It's a thing we can't deny,
Like the fact that I will love you 'till I die...." (lyrics to Nine Million Bicycles in Beijing, Mike Batt, 2008)
Whatever the figures, we saw very few cycles in Beijing that day - and only just the odd merchant's bike pedalled cart and a street sweeper using traditional straw broom to remind us of the Beijing we once knew.
The local crowds along Chang'an Avenue however, were absolutely staggering. Perhaps because it was a Sunday or maybe given the amount of flags bearing stripes with a star and sickle together with brightly coloured street banners and flying carp kites, there was a particular foreign delegation or even a celebration or festival? We did not find out. But being the most populous capital city in the world with a population of around 22 million people, perhaps it should not have been surprising.
With police operating on virtually every corner, street walkers soon became herded into solid teams, forced through portable barricades to cross the busy highway and onto the other side of Chang'an Avenue.
What for us began as a relaxing walk soon became a choking queue of pedestrians helplessly forced into an irresistible march toward the Forbidden City. And as we progressed in the bumper to bumper crowd, barely able to take one step in front of another, we realised to our dismay there was no going back, nor even being able to reach Tiananmen Square which was on the side of the road we had been forced to leave.
Eventually we could see ahead that the queue was being channelled through gates where individuals were presenting their passports and/or ID cards to officials. With a groan we realised this was the Forbidden City entrance and as we were not carrying our passports or in fact any kind of identification, we could not have entered the complex even if we had wanted.
There was no other way than to turn back and try to retrace our steps back through the oncoming relentless hordes. Thankfully the people were very accommodating, squeezing to the side as much as they could to let us foolish foreigners pass against the oncoming crowd traffic. In the end we found a short wall which we walked on top of for a very long way until we could find our way back toward the hotel. But it was not easy. And any minute I fully expected us to be forced back by the police.
Sitting on the footpath, an exhausted Alan hissed "How the hell did this happen?" Neither of us had any idea. Totally beyond our control, it certainly put an end to our idea of a relaxing stroll. By then temperature had soared and the humidity was suffocating. After a blistering five kilometer return walk, we were more than relieved to arrive back at our hotel.
A quiet cold drink followed by an afternoon rest was just what was needed.
A Pleasant Evening in the Club Lounge
As our flight to Khabarovsk did not depart until 2:15 am, we had a lot of time to fill in before we left our hotel for the international airport. We were however so fortunate to have had a late check out and the use of the hotel's Club Lounge.
As we sat down for a drink, a polite and quite reserved man probably in his late 50's, approached us asking where we were from and to where we were travelling. "Ahh, I thought you were Australian. Perhaps you might like to join my wife and our family for the evening?" he asked. We were appreciative but declined. We were deeply tired and selfish as it may sound, were in no mood for polite chatter with people we didn't know.
As the evening progressed, most people left the lounge but the Australian couple and their family were still there and kindly welcomed us again to join them. The two hours or so we spent with them was very enjoyable. Philip and Susan, a couple from Queensland explained that they were taking Susan's parents Max and Margaret (names withheld) on their first visit to China; firstly to Beijing then Xian and Shanghai, followed by a cruise back to Australia. Susan's father was in the early stages of dementia and the family decided to treat the parents-in-law to the trip while Max was still able to enjoy travel.
Of course, our new friends were interested as to where we were travelling and as the night progressed over a few more drinks and even more animated conversation, I think we all began to wonder what on earth we were heading into. It was great fun.
And like our experiences at Sydney Airport, their story and generosity to each other gave us some hope that there are still good and caring people in the world. In more recent days when ethics, good will and selflessness seem to have been thrown to the wind, we have often wondered....
2025-05-22