Land of Rude Toiletries

Well, after a long thirteen hour flight we arrived at Beijing’s international airport. Once we taxied to our gate, we had to remain seated until the quarantine team came on board and took each passenger’s temperature with a heat-reading gun. It was actually a pretty smooth and quick process. I was very worried about a woman in our group, who was sitting one row behind me who threw up twice during the flight! She was really only sick from motion sickness, not from the flu, so she wasn’t quarantined. I was actually worried about myself as well, because they have been known to quarantine people in the surrounding rows of someone who is suspected of being sick. It took us about an hour to go through the health inspection, immigration and customs. All of our luggage arrived safely. In fact, when I walked up to the luggage carousel, mine was the first one that I saw. I have to say that when I walked out of the secure area of the airport and into the main area, I didn’t really feel like I was in China. What are the first two things that I see…Starbucks and KFC. In China, though, the Colonel is known as the Chairman. (Just kidding!)

We all walked outside and to our shuttle bus. Almost instantly I could notice the pollution in the air. My entire mouth just felt coated. It’s an odd feeling. And the sky here was a continual grey, which is, as we were told, due to pollution. If you leave the city, the sky becomes bright blue. Maybe I will see that today when we go to the Great Wall. Anyway, it was nearly an hour into the city from the airport. Traffic is, let’s just say, interesting. The stereotypical image that Americans have of Chinese filling the streets on their bikes is very passé. The streets are now crowded with Hondas, Toyotas, Hyundais, and Kias. As we were very quickly told, pedestrians do not have the right of way in China, ever, so we need to really be careful when crossing busy streets.

Our hotel, the Taiwan Hotel, is fairly nice. We stayed last night and will be spending one more night. While the rooms are nice, the toiletries are not. They are down-right rude. Well, let’s say that translating things from Chinese to English often leads to some interesting results. Instead of items being labeled “not free” or “non-complementary”, they have a rather interesting translation, which you can see in the picture above.

After having an hour to clean up, we all headed out to see Tian’anmen Square, site of the giant Chairman Mao portrait and site of the 1989 riot. Again, it was rather grey and a bit raining, but it was still impressive. I was feeling a bit fuzzy, as most of us were, after the long flight, so I didn’t really appreciate the full majesty of the location. I had two thoughts on my mind: food and bed!

We then split into a couple groups for dinner. My group went to a noodle shop. My dinner was so good. I had a Korean style noodle dish with spicy beef and soup. The noodles had a nice raw egg cracked on top. Yummy! Actually, you simply stir the noodles and the heat cooks the egg. Don’t worry. Even though Beijing is known as being the most expensive city in China, my dinner came to 28¥, which is just over $4. I can deal with that! By the time I was done eating, I was literally falling asleep at the table. I crawled into bed shortly after 9 pm.

Today is our trip to the Great Wall. Keep an eye out for photos from that! Oh, and just an example of how China is still not a free country by any means, as a result of some unrest in the western province in China, sites such as Facebook and blog sites have been shut down by the government. So I have to send out my reports via e-mail to have them posted from home. Life’s a big adventure, right?