Got up around 5 to catch the plane to Beijing at 9.
The Airport Express train started around that time, so I was able to take a 40 HKD (8 AUD) taxi to Tsing Yi station and the 60 HKD (12 AUD) Airport Express train from there.
The taxi driver spoke very little English, but I asked him how many taxi drivers there were in Hong Kong, having noticed there were taxis everywhere. He said 100,000.
Some quite nice views of what I assume was Discovery Bay out the train window.
Got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Short queues for the Dragonair check-in. Got moved to the first class line anyway, as they had someone free. The woman behind the counter asked if I would like to take an earlier flight, but I figured it would be simplest to keep the same flight and meet the Winkelmayers (the family I stayed with in Austria when I was younger) at the arranged time.
Spent some time walking around the terminal. Lots of things to buy.
Checked out some new phones, namely the Samsung M880H, which had an 8 megapixel camera (!) and the iPhone, which I'd never really used before. They both seemed pretty cool. Couldn't tell how good the camera was on the Samsung, since it was indoors and pretty good conditions. The real test of a camera is how it performs at distance and in poor light. The iPhone also seemed good, but the ringtones weren't very loud even at maximum value. Still would have bought one or the other if they were cheap. :-)
They also had a Quicksilver shop, a tea shop, a Japanese shop (Ajisan or something like that?), a couple of fashion boutiques, and double as many again after passing thru security.
The flight was fine. The plane was like a 10-year-old Qantas plane with a single screen for the whole section and the same graphics showing the current position, course, weather, and time. Had a Chinese dim sum breakfast, which was quite nice.
Arrived at Beijing airport, cleared customs, then took the airport shuttle train to the t3c terminal to collect my bags. Thankfully everything was dual-signed in English. Perhaps it was always that way, but I'm guessing the 2008 olympics were also a great excuse to make everything so clear for tourists. They even had buttons to press to say if you thought the service was good or not at the customs counter! In contrast to Hong Kong, all the announcements in English had an American accent.
At the airport, everything was very smokey. Not pollution smokey, but fire smokey, like how it is in Melbourne when there are fires. Apparently it can be worse than that.
At this stage, I was wearing a t-shirt and an unzipped jacket, and felt quite warm. I was surprised, because I had heard the weather would be around 0 degrees.
Papa (Heinz) picked me up and drove us home. We had a good chat in German. The streets were quite broad and fairly quiet. It wasn't a peak time, but it also seems the outer ring roads are less busy than the inner ones.
Arrived at Mama (Brigitte) and Papa's house. They live in a diplomatic compound called Qijiayuan near the Yonganli station. There are mostly foreign diplomats, attaches, and their families living there, but I'm told that anyone can live there.
We had a nice lunch: schnitzel, rice, and salad with pumpkinseed oil, just like like I used to have when I stayed in Austria. Apparently the pumpkinseed is a particularly Styrian thing.
After lunch, Papa went back to work, and Mama took me for a tour of the neighbourhood.
First we went to the Silk Street Market, where Mama knew one of the store workers, who tried to sell me some Tommy Hilfiger clothes.
I said I wanted to change my Hong Kong dollars, so we found a booth upstairs. They were offering 100 HKD = 82 RMB (Chinese Yuan is usually abbreviated RMB in China rather than CNY), but I thought it was supposed to be nearly 1-to-1, so I said no.
Then we went downstairs to the subway station inside and bought a ticket. It was only 2 Yuan (about 40 Australian cents) for any trip in any direction!
We boarded a number 1 train Westbound to Tiananmen Square, the centre of Beijing.
I didn't know much about Tiananmen Square, other than for bad reasons.
It's huge!
It's the site of Chairman Mao's mausoleum, a momument to the Communist revolutionaries called the Monument to the People's Heroes, the National Museum of China, the Great Hall of the People, and the Planning Museum, but the main feature is the Tiananmen, meaning the Gate of the Heavenly Peace.
It's smack bang in the centre of Beijing, but it's not super busy, as the business district is small distance to the East.
Also felt a bit Russian in the sense that it was bloody cold! I quickly changed me mind about the necessity of a jumper! Reminded me of an episode of the IT Crowd where the smokers are banished to a cold courtyard, but the place didn't feel solemn or scary, just big, interesting, and important.
We then went to a nearby market, which had recently been rebuilt to look like an old-style village.
They had a lot of bright white stores selling cheap clothes, which I didn't like at all, but they had one nice expensive-looking tea house. I tried some green and jasmine tea. We weren't buying today, otherwise I would have got something. (But Mama did buy me some nice green tea and almond biscuits.)
Since we planned to come back another day, we then took the subway back to Yonganli.
We found a bank to change my Hong Kong dollars at the Friendship Market, this time at about 100 HKD = 89 RMB. That was the only thing there that was good value! They had some nice pearls and jade, but it was all ridiculously expensive. In stark contrast to the Silk Street market, all the people here were a bit less pushy. I think if they made one sale a month at those prices they would have been happy. :-)
Got back home, practised some Mandarin Chinese, and went to bed.
The Airport Express train started around that time, so I was able to take a 40 HKD (8 AUD) taxi to Tsing Yi station and the 60 HKD (12 AUD) Airport Express train from there.
The taxi driver spoke very little English, but I asked him how many taxi drivers there were in Hong Kong, having noticed there were taxis everywhere. He said 100,000.
Some quite nice views of what I assume was Discovery Bay out the train window.
My Hong Kong coins
Got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Short queues for the Dragonair check-in. Got moved to the first class line anyway, as they had someone free. The woman behind the counter asked if I would like to take an earlier flight, but I figured it would be simplest to keep the same flight and meet the Winkelmayers (the family I stayed with in Austria when I was younger) at the arranged time.
Spent some time walking around the terminal. Lots of things to buy.
Checked out some new phones, namely the Samsung M880H, which had an 8 megapixel camera (!) and the iPhone, which I'd never really used before. They both seemed pretty cool. Couldn't tell how good the camera was on the Samsung, since it was indoors and pretty good conditions. The real test of a camera is how it performs at distance and in poor light. The iPhone also seemed good, but the ringtones weren't very loud even at maximum value. Still would have bought one or the other if they were cheap. :-)
They also had a Quicksilver shop, a tea shop, a Japanese shop (Ajisan or something like that?), a couple of fashion boutiques, and double as many again after passing thru security.
Some of the shops inside the Hong Kong airport
Qantas and Dragonair planes side-by-side
The flight was fine. The plane was like a 10-year-old Qantas plane with a single screen for the whole section and the same graphics showing the current position, course, weather, and time. Had a Chinese dim sum breakfast, which was quite nice.
Arrived at Beijing airport, cleared customs, then took the airport shuttle train to the t3c terminal to collect my bags. Thankfully everything was dual-signed in English. Perhaps it was always that way, but I'm guessing the 2008 olympics were also a great excuse to make everything so clear for tourists. They even had buttons to press to say if you thought the service was good or not at the customs counter! In contrast to Hong Kong, all the announcements in English had an American accent.
At the airport, everything was very smokey. Not pollution smokey, but fire smokey, like how it is in Melbourne when there are fires. Apparently it can be worse than that.
At this stage, I was wearing a t-shirt and an unzipped jacket, and felt quite warm. I was surprised, because I had heard the weather would be around 0 degrees.
Papa (Heinz) picked me up and drove us home. We had a good chat in German. The streets were quite broad and fairly quiet. It wasn't a peak time, but it also seems the outer ring roads are less busy than the inner ones.
Arrived at Mama (Brigitte) and Papa's house. They live in a diplomatic compound called Qijiayuan near the Yonganli station. There are mostly foreign diplomats, attaches, and their families living there, but I'm told that anyone can live there.
We had a nice lunch: schnitzel, rice, and salad with pumpkinseed oil, just like like I used to have when I stayed in Austria. Apparently the pumpkinseed is a particularly Styrian thing.
After lunch, Papa went back to work, and Mama took me for a tour of the neighbourhood.
First we went to the Silk Street Market, where Mama knew one of the store workers, who tried to sell me some Tommy Hilfiger clothes.
I said I wanted to change my Hong Kong dollars, so we found a booth upstairs. They were offering 100 HKD = 82 RMB (Chinese Yuan is usually abbreviated RMB in China rather than CNY), but I thought it was supposed to be nearly 1-to-1, so I said no.
Then we went downstairs to the subway station inside and bought a ticket. It was only 2 Yuan (about 40 Australian cents) for any trip in any direction!
We boarded a number 1 train Westbound to Tiananmen Square, the centre of Beijing.
Mama near their house in Beijing
The Silk Street market
I didn't know much about Tiananmen Square, other than for bad reasons.
It's huge!
It's the site of Chairman Mao's mausoleum, a momument to the Communist revolutionaries called the Monument to the People's Heroes, the National Museum of China, the Great Hall of the People, and the Planning Museum, but the main feature is the Tiananmen, meaning the Gate of the Heavenly Peace.
It's smack bang in the centre of Beijing, but it's not super busy, as the business district is small distance to the East.
Also felt a bit Russian in the sense that it was bloody cold! I quickly changed me mind about the necessity of a jumper! Reminded me of an episode of the IT Crowd where the smokers are banished to a cold courtyard, but the place didn't feel solemn or scary, just big, interesting, and important.
Tiananmen East Station
Me at Tiananmen Square
Mao Zedong's portrait on the Gate of the Heavenly Peace
The National Museum of China
The National Museum of China
The Monument to the People's Heroes
Mao's Mausoleum
Qianmen Gate
We then went to a nearby market, which had recently been rebuilt to look like an old-style village.
They had a lot of bright white stores selling cheap clothes, which I didn't like at all, but they had one nice expensive-looking tea house. I tried some green and jasmine tea. We weren't buying today, otherwise I would have got something. (But Mama did buy me some nice green tea and almond biscuits.)
The old-style village
Since we planned to come back another day, we then took the subway back to Yonganli.
We found a bank to change my Hong Kong dollars at the Friendship Market, this time at about 100 HKD = 89 RMB. That was the only thing there that was good value! They had some nice pearls and jade, but it was all ridiculously expensive. In stark contrast to the Silk Street market, all the people here were a bit less pushy. I think if they made one sale a month at those prices they would have been happy. :-)
A funny steam outlet
One of three entrances to the Qijiayuan diplomatic compound
The LG Twin Towers across the road
One of the diplomatic residential buildings with World Trade Center Tower III in the background
Got back home, practised some Mandarin Chinese, and went to bed.
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