Arrival In 北京

We landed at about 6am in Beijing and I have to say that it that the airport is pretty amazing: it’s huge and very well organised – I am not quite so sure it needs to be so big, it’s like a small city in itself and you need to get a train between the various parts – arrival, baggage, immigration etc. I guess it was necessary to cope with the influx of people for the Olympics a few years ago. It did appear that a lot of money had been spent on it at that time, but it didn’t seem to have been maintained since then.

Or cleaned.

After getting through immigration, we collect baggage, get coffee and I get hold of a China Telecom 2G sim card so at least I can be connected to whatever internet I am allowed to access whilst over here. I am thankful for being with friends that speak the language, though I probably would have been able to get a sim card on my own – it definitely would have taken longer, and this was it's just easier with them there to ask all the questions that I won’t be able to.

Coffee, sim and luggage all in place, we head to the station and get the train to Sanyuanqiao and then a subway to our nearest station to the hotel – Tuanjiehu. So far so good – all seems pretty easy so far… As we travel out of the airport, I am struck at the amount of space and how huge Beijing is – expansive roads, huge station holdings etc. Very impressive.

I am also quite shocked at how smoggy it is – maybe it’s the morning mist over 中国 that’s the cause… somehow I suspect no.