Tuesday, January 26, 2016: Day 1 in BeijingLet me just preface by saying I don’t do well on less than 7 hours of sleep.
We landed in PEK around 6:15am and taxied to our remote stand which took about 20 minutes. While we did get on a bus just for business passengers, it took us another 15 minutes to get to the terminal due to aircrafts blocking our route all over the place. I got through immigration and found a nice area to daven Shachris. Sometime in the middle of shmona esre I realized I’d left my food bag on the plane!
I asked the police just past immigration what I could do. He called the airline and had them check the plane and hold me that if they find anything it’ll be at lost and found after exiting baggage claim. It wasn’t. They claimed the cleaners had cleaned the plane and not found anything. At least someone got a free lunch.
For my day in Beijing I decided to book a full day tour of Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Great Wall at Mutianyu with China Highlights. While it was a group tour, it was guaranteed there would be no more than 6 people in the group and given the fact that it was January I assumed there’d be a lot less. The tour included lunch at Subway, but I told them I won’t be needed it so they took off 10RMB form the price. The total cost was $114 for the tour. Because I was arriving that morning, they strongly suggested I use their airport pickup service for $25 to make sure I meet the tour. If I didn’t and was delayed, it would be up to me to make meet up with the tour and if I missed them I’d be out of luck. For that price and the security of knowing I’d make the tour regardless I opted in. The total was $139, paid via Paypal in USD.
Anyway, my driver, Mr. Han, didn’t speak much English, but did a fine job of getting me to town. We ended up going straight to the St. Regis to meet another guest and our tour guide, William. I said goodbye to Mr. Han and hellow to Silvie, my first tour companion. She is a mother of two girls who was visiting from Lyon, France on business and decided to stay (with her husband’s blessings) an extra day to tour the city. From their we battled our way though Beijing traffic to pick up our other two tour-mates, Debbie and Jeanie. Debbie is an expat living in Shanghai and Jeanie is her friend who was visiting. They were in their late 50s.
The four of us headed off with William and the driver to Tienanmen Square. The tour was really nice of both the square and the Forbidden City. If I’d toured on my own I wouldn’t have gotten any of the history and background to the various buildings and palaces since there were very few signs with explanations.
Pictures from Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City:
Frozen moat around the Forbidden CityWe met up with the driver around 11:30 for our 2 hour drive to Mutianyu. Once there we went to Subway for lunch. We were each allowed to spend 50 RMB. This is when they learned I wouldn’t be eating the food their, but I did use the stipend to order some whole tomatoes and cucumbers to tide me over. I also ate some snacks I’d packed from home which did the trick and kept me satiated.
We had all opted to take the chair lift up and the toboggan down instead of just taking the gondola both ways. William talked about the wall a bit and gave us 75 minutes to do our own thing up top. I hiked from the chair lift tower to the gondola tower and back, which took the whole time. The weather that day was absolutely clear, without the slightest hint of smog or haze. This made the views from the wall (and in the city itself) that much nicer!
Chairlift up
Toboggan downPictures of the Great Wall in winter:
The toboggan ride down was very fun indeed. Enjoy this video I took of the ride (nearly 5 minutes long!). Sorry for the vertical format:
I did go slower since I was filming (and don’t yet have a GoPro), but it was fun all the same.
I davened mincha, met back up with the group, and then we drove back to Beijing, a feat that took 2.5 hours in rush hour traffic.
I was the first to be dropped off at the Park Hyatt Beijing. Before I get into detail about the hotel, let me say that I was starving. It was 6pm at this point, so after quickly checking in I tried to go to eat.
First Uber couldn’t find Dini’s address (the restaurant). Then there was 3x surge pricing. I had no cash and the ATM in the building was broken. This is where Leah from the Concierge came to the rescue. First she offered to charge my room 200 RMB and gave me cash. Then she used her phone to order a car on a local app called DiDi where you pay the driver’s in cash.
It took the car 30 minutes to arrive and a further 50 minutes to get to Dini’s, suffice to say I was famished at 8:00pm when I arrived. The restaurant was empty except two Israeli Chabad girls who were there on shulichus who were not eating at the time. I didn’t care: I ordered food and that’s all that mattered at that point.
Outside of Dini's
Inside of Dini'sThey messed up my appetizer, giving me the vegetable rolls instead of the jiaozi, but I was too hungry to exchange it. The food was nothing too special, but edible. I also ordered some sandwiches for the next day for luch so I wouldn't have to go back in traffic to pick them up. The total bill was 290 RMB (165 for dinner, 125 for the sandwiches). I handed over my credit card and low and behold: cash only. Well I only had 139 RMB left and needed some of it to get back to the hotel.
Vegetable roll
Main courseThe woman at the restaurant said there was an ATM next door, not a problem. Well that ATM didn’t like my two debit cards (probably didn’t accept US cards) so I couldn’t take out money. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I asked if they could call the hotel to ask Leah what to do.
Boy did Leah save the day! She transferred money via a mobile app (like whatsapp) straight to the cashiers account and then charged my room for the cost! What a savior! The restaurant once again used DiDi to call a car and I was back at the hotel a short 20 minutes later (traffic was a lot lighter).
Light, late night traffic, as seen from my room, PH BeijingBy this point I was dead tired. It was almost 10pm, so after going up to my room and a quick shower, I hit the sack for a solid 9 hours.
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