September 17, 2019
China (facts)
Population 1.39 billion
GDP $14.22 trillion USD
President Xi Jinping
Highly expected was that September 16, 2019 flight that would take us to our 2nd stop around-the-world (our 1st stop was France), especially after all the visa fuss. What was expecting us in China and would we like our stay there? That’s all we had in mind on the plane (B777-300 British Airways) to Beijing.
After an uneventful 9-hour flight from LHR, we landed in Beijing Capital Airport. Ironically, an Air France flight took off as we landed… say hello to Paris for us :)
Taxiing, it felt like any airport in the world: runway numbers, gate letters and airport services in readable English. As soon as we entered the airport though, signs were written in both English and Chinese. Easy, right? Not for long! Our filled-up cards, visas and passports were all good and we did not have to spend too much time before entering officially into China.
The way from the terminal to the luggage belts is really long and we had to ride a train to get there.
A chauffeur was picking us up, first time for us but was like in the movies, our name on a sign in an unfamiliar airport…
Beijing was pretty hot when we got there (28 deg C, 80 deg F) but fortunately we had air conditioning on the way to our rental apartment.
The 6-hour jetlag threw us off and we crashed for an afternoon nap. After what we decided to roam around our neighborhood, and found a mall nearby. We did not want to get too far in case we would not be able to make it back! We might be able to ask how to get somewhere but would not understand the response :)
The mall looked like any mall in North America: very bright, 4-storeys-high, brands mostly in Westernalphabet, same variety of stores including food court. We even saw our 1st McDonald’s (haven’t tried though).
We had dinner in the mall, ate steamed buns with stuffing TBC but we were already happy to get some food! There is no cold water here as the Chinese think it’s not healthy plus tap water is not drinkable. So, tea is the way to go in restaurants! And we had to buy big water containers to fill up our bottles and drink at the apartment.
On our way back to the apartment, at night time (sun sets around 6:30pm here), we could see the fog near public lights. People were outside, grand-parents playing with children and people chatting on a plaza nearby.
Daily activity summary
4.5km
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