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GROUP JOURNAL FOR
Day 07
BEIJING Submitted by Fred & Ze Gerber Ulaanbaatar (ULN) Not raining. |
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Up at 0400, early breakfast in hotel. On bus to airport @ 0500 to check-in for Mongolian Air flight 223 to Beijing, China. After all the to-be-checked luggage (30 pieces) is lined up in front of the check-in counter, Bo and I take charge of loading it onto the scale for the agent who carefully records the weights before tagging each piece. The agent agrees to consider all the luggage together and we are just under the maximum for the group. Push-back at 0725 of our 2/3 full Airbus 310. Uneventful 2 hour flight with another breakfast. After landing in Beijing (BJS) @0830 (time 1 hour earlier than ULN) we first fill out a health form and pass the Health Station for a SARS check, then fill out customs forms and pass thru passport control, all except Diane who is lost again. Finally we all made it thru, changed money and, at 1000, commenced busing into the city, destination the Forbidden City. To our relief, the bus was big enough to hold us and all our luggage. Observations along the drive in to the city:
Arrive and disembark @ Tiananmen Square, very large @44000 square meters (about 440,000 sq ft or about 10 acres). Dominated by Mao’s Mausoleum at one end and his portrait at the other over the entrance to the Imperial City. Observations on the Imperial and Forbidden Cities:
Our guide is a martinet, drives us on before us on her chosen route through the endless grounds of this giant relic of Imperial China. Finally we exit the back gate and find that the bus is another ½ mile away. Then off to a Shanghai style restaurant for Lunch: 8 different dishes: Whole fish, rice, noodles, soup, etc. Delicious!! Forbidden City is the center of Beijing. Lunch place is on the second of the three ring roads, miles away. On we go to a required factory visit, for us it is to be a silk factory and showroom. We view silkworms, spinning, weaving, then a fashion show. Finally it is the SHOPPING. By 1715 we have crept thru Beijing’s awful traffic to a point near the airport where we stop at a Traditional Tea House for a tea demonstration and, perhaps, more SHOPPING. Lovely interior, lots of tea. Demonstration of proper way to serve Oolong Tea, Rose Flavor Tea, Jasmine Tea, Lychee Black Tea, Monkey Tea. Tea tasty but very dear. No one buys. Beijing has changed dramatically since Ze’s and my visit in 1997. Many more high rise buildings. Many old neighborhoods are gone to make way for them. Fewer bicycles. Many more cars. No more old men in Mao jackets in Tiananmen Square. Pollution still awful. Dinner uneventful, then on to airport for our 10pm flight to Urumqi. Check-in as before. We line up all the luggage (now 32 pieces) and Bo and I load it on to the scale, one by one this time. Again we are within the weight limit. Then a long (3hour) flight on China Southern Airlines to Urumqi the Unreachable, the city farthest from the ocean in all the world. Land after Midnight. All of China is in One (1) Time zone by decree of the Beijing government. Urumqi is as far West of Beijing and Denver is from New York. So in Urumqi there is "Urumqi (local) Time" and "Beijing Time" the former 2 hours earlier than the latter. Banks and all Government affairs are on "Beijing" time. Most businesses and the local folks run on "Urumqi" time. So did we. Most of Urumqi is modern. The roads in to our city were lined by garish lighted plastic palm trees. Our hotel, the Hong Xin, built by the Chinese Post Office was very central, 2 blocks from the Peoples Square. Nice room (2508), Hard beds, Slow drains, Good view. Got to bed at 0024 Urumqi (local) time, 0224 Beijing time, 0324 Ulaanbaatar time. Thus completing an almost 24 hour day during which we passed from the sublime thru the ridiculous to the unexpected. The adventure continues! |
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