Back in Beijing

Monday, October 04, 2010
Beijing, Beijing, China
Yay for comfortable flights! Our plane was continuing on to Japan, so there was a wide mix of people on board, but plenty of free seats. Although we were near the back and in the middle row, I had a free seat to my left, and there was an Irish girl (also a part time teacher) in the seat beyond that, so we had a great chat before the flight took off. I had no one in front or behind me and my bag was under the seat next to me, so I had tonnes of room to stretch out. Daddy was in the aisle seat, but there was a woman in front of him who was completely incapable of doing anything for herself, from putting her giant bags in the overhead compartments, to finding the bathroom, to operating the tv, to putting her seat back. And she couldn't get her seat up either, whining "I don't know howwwww!" when the cabin crew asked her to adjust it. >:( Anyway, it was fine. I watched Letters From Juliet and Just Wright, and they also have Toy Story 3 and something else that's fairly new to cinemas back home, but I had a snooze after the second one, and in no time we were preparing for landing.

The air is CLEAR today! I couldn't believe it . I was able to see Beijing and the airport on the plane camera and out the window. Loads of fields, apartments and blue roofs. There was no swine flu check this time either, which eliminated a lot of the queues. The Irish girl hadn't gotten her arrival card, so we abandoned her at immigration and joined the throng for the train to baggage claim. I had to laugh at the giant sign in the middle of the platform that says "RELAX! Trains come every three minutes!".

We decided that a taxi would be the handiest option for getting to the hotel (especially since it's not in a mysterious hutong this time!) but it's such a change from Dubai taxis. Both car and driver were smelly and dirty, he couldn't speak English, or read Chinese OR the map. It was only from repeating "Forbidden City" and pointing at the tiny picture on the hotels.com printout that we managed to convey where we wanted to go. Fair play to him though, he found it alright, and the half hour drive only cost about €10 (though the yuan is just over 8 to the euro now) . Our flight was delayed by about 40 minutes, but hotels.com booked the wrong room for us (they did in the Radisson in Dublin too), so we had to wait for over an hour for the right room to be made up. We were brought up to a lounge with free food, drink and wifi (yay yay!) and while Daddy snoozed, my netbook and I lamented the loss of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and pretty much everything else I use the internet for. :(

Raffles itself is lovely. It's not a knock-off - one can't knock off a major luxury brand building without consequences - but it's actually two or three hotels in one, which is nice and confusing and Chinese. They have a Writers Bar, where George Bernard Shaw, Mewosy and other famous people sat and had their photograph taken, and - most importantly - the have a western breakfast every morning. :D We eventually got our room, on the seventh floor of the back building, and it's a lovely suite, with three separate rooms in the bathroom and pretty sliding doors between the lounge and bedroom . It's a tiny bit scuffed around the edges, but then it's Beijing and it's a historical building. It's lucky to be here at all!

I had a shower and about ten minutes nap when Ying called and said she was here. We hurried downstairs and there she was, husband and all! I've explained this in so many places that I forget whether I explained it here or not, but the facts are these: The wedding was set for October 6th, so I booked the tickets and let her know. In the week before I left, she emailed me back and told me she'd been racing around the country on these vital family visits one must complete when one is getting married in China, and she had no internet for a few days. NOW her parents had decided to change the date of the wedding to the 28th of September, so she actually got married before I left Ireland at all! DUDE. She also had to go to visit her husbands family, before heading off for a second ceremony in her hometown and ALL of this had to be completed in the ten days marriage holiday allotted to them by the government (which cruelly coincides with the National Day holiday, so they're missing out on that too) . That means that the only day that we overlapped was today, the 4th, and only for a small while! Insane.

Her husband is Chen and he's a major in the army, in armaments technical something something. He's lovely though, and although he only has basic English he gave it his best. Ying and I usurped the conversation though, of course. We all went for a coffee in the Writers Bar (Ying loves her coffee, you'll remember, and has completely converted Chen too) and caught up. Just like with Jill, even though I haven't seen her in ages, we can still sit down together and just talk non stop for hours. She's brilliant. Eventually they had to go and buy brand name shoes as a gift for his grandmother (I don't get these traditions, so please don't even ask...) and we parted at the door. Daddy and I strolled down to Tiananmen Square, against the throngs and throngs of Chinese tourists who are here for the holiday, but everything is covered in lights and there are flowers and fountains and video displays and it was dusk and it was totally worth it for the photos. I made a bunch of new friends who wanted my picture, and got my kicks from being difficult for anyone trying to sneak a picture of me. :P When we were too tired to go on, we headed back to the hotel, had some soup, explored and bit and headed off for bed.

Zzzzz....

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