Wednesday 14th - Thursday 15th

Good flight from London to Beijing which was only 10 hours 30 minutes.  We slept for most of it.  As we were coming into land at 10:15, the pilot announced that the temperature in Beijing was 27C rising to 38C (!!!!!!!) in the afternoon.  More on that later.  On the descent, you really got to see Beijing smog in action.

Cleared immigration quickly the took the Automated People Mover (aka shuttle train) to baggage collection.  

Not sure why, but I was expecting a gleaming modern airport at Beijing.  It was built in 2007 and already looks dated.  What it is though is humongous.

Met by our guide Rocky. Initial impressions from our 40-minute drive to the hotel: no litter ANYWHERE; the people are not as short as we were led to believe; Beijing is by no means the prettiest city in the world; driving just seems to be a game of chicken – you just keep going until one driver backs down. Foreigners aren’t allowed to drive in China and that suits us just fine.

Rocky said that we had a city tour planned for 14:00 but both very tired so we out it back to 15:30.

Checked into the Red Wall Garden Hotel which is well located for the major sights but has seen better days. 

Though it does have a pillow menu.

This is the sign to the toilets:

Set the alarm to get 2 hours sleep and crashed.  Quick drink in the hotel garden

before meeting Chris, from Munich, and another driver for our tour. The transportation caused quite a stir with the locals. They tried to get out of the photo but weren't quick enough.

David’s driver was Chris whose English is very good but my driver’s English is as good as my Mandarin. We the had a 2-hour trip around town, taking in some Zahar Hadid super-modern architecture right next to old Beijing hutongs (alleyways)

This is the so-called “pants” building because that’s what is looks like.  It’s the headquarters of China state TV - CCTV.

The building next door was built in 2007 as a 5-star Mandarin Oriental hotel. 

Before opening someone at CCTV arranged for a non-authorised firework display from the top of the building to celebrate their new HQ.  The building caught alight and was completely gutted.  It was decided to demolish it but the engineers determined that to do so would undermine the foundations of the CCTV building.  So since 2007 it is being rebuilt on the inside.  Work is slow as the arguments rage about who should pay.   The CCTV official was jailed for 5 years.

Continued tour taking the Opera House (impressive) and a man-made lake (not so impressive - no photo).

Visitors to China might come across a stray dog and might think about taking it back home.  David, on the other hand, thinks of other things to take home.

At the opera house there was a man really into his dancing. Chris told us this is very common but to us he just looked nuts.

There are LOTS of boris bikes in the city as David will now demonstrate:

You use an app on your phone to pay about 70p for an hour.  Once paid, the app sends you a code to unlock the bike.  You can leave the bike literally anywhere you want and it seems this causes a lot of problems.

By this time it was incredibly hot and being at exhaust-level of all those cars was not helping the situation.  The heat it seems is made worse by the large number of glass buildings that reflect the heat.  We stopped in the shade at the only remaining section of the Beijing city wall.  Most of it was knocked down by the Communist regime in the 1950/60s and only 1.5 km of more than 40km remain.  There was an old couple which I discreetly tried to snap but from the look on their faces I think they were on to me. 

Dropped back to the hotel where Rocky books us a restaurant for tonight.  Just time for a beer before heading to Dadong Restaurant for Peking Duck – well it would be rude not to.  Restaurant was on the 5th floor of a very upmarket shopping centre with a not-so-upmarket lobby:

We had half a duck with the trimmings which the chef shows you and then slices for you.  We were expecting the 2-fork routine but he sliced it like a Sunday joint.

Neither of us were over-impressed with the duck but the vegetables - braised cabbage with shrimp and especially the cauliflower with belly pork and chicken were sensational.

These were followed by duck soup (absolutely disgusting) and fresh lychees. I’ve never eaten them fresh before and they’re great.  Nothing like the tinned ones I have eaten.

The internet in the hotel is VERY slow and keeps dropping.  If this is the same everywhere we go, this blog is going to be problematic.  Facebook, Blogger etc. are blocked in China, but I loaded a VPN before we left London to get around the “Great Firewall of China”.

Early start tomorrow for the 2.5-hour drive to see the actual Great Wall of China.