After all the hype of the Olympics in Beijing I never dreamt I would be travelling there.
My son booked a trip as my 60th Birthday present. Talk about excited. It was absolutely superb. Our hotel was so well placed we only had a 15 minute walk to Tian-men Sqaure.
I'm jumping ahead - let's do the journey - Manchester to Munich - not bad for a first leg. Munich airport is much more sophisticated than Manchester so the 5 hours we had between flights was spent eating etc in one of the outside restaurants. We could roam about without having to worry about returning to the airport as we were already there. It was a really good start to a long journey. I am the most boring traveller - spend half my time asleep and only wake for food and drink - that is on long haul flights. It is a long journey but passed quite easily and before we knew it we were landing in Beijing.
This is when it struck us how useless we were with the Chinese language. Trying to tell the cab driver where we needed to go was impossible. Fortunately my son rang his friend, Ji (4.30 am in England) and asked him to speak with the driver in Chinese. Thank goodness he understood and within three-quarters of an hour we were at the hotel. I was practically squeaking with excitement. This is when the sleeping on the flights becomes beneficial because I did not feel in the slightest bit tired. Just a bit scruffy and unwashed and more facial creases than normal.
This turned into a whirl-wind day - booked into hotel - part unpacked and was about to have a shower and change until my son knocked on my door and informed me that we were not in the rooms we had booked. Back to Reception where they verified that the rooms were incorrect. Just as we were about to leave Reception and be shown to new rooms a voice called "Chris" - my son's name. Lo and behold there stood two young Chinese girls. Just to inform you that my son has a Chinese business partner and he had passed on the info that we were travelling to Beijing and when we were arriving. One of the girls, Shen, had been at University in England at the same time as Ji and he had asked her to look after us for a day or two until we had found our way around. Speedily changed rooms, back to reception and out into Beijing with our guides. We went on foot on this occasion and I am so pleased we did. I love to walk around whenever possible. The feel of Beijing was good from the very start, it was Saturday and bustled with people, both tourists and locals. We strolled around trying to take visual note of where we were
in relation to the hotel. This was our first visit to Tian-men Square, so many groups of tourists with guides. Shen and her friend were explaining to us all the time about the history and events of this place. Because it was winter, the sun soon began to dip, it was freezing and all the lights were appearing at every side of us. So pleased that is not my electricity bill. Regardless, the whole effect took my breath away. We were originally going to find somewhere to eat, but quite honestly, by this time, Chris and I were beginning to feel a bit past our best. It was suggested that we book for the Chinese Opera that evening but I think Shen realised we were beginning to flag a little. We arranged that they should come to the hotel around 10am on the Sunday and have another view of the sights. Good idea to take note of the route on the way there as we left them in Tian-men Square and set off on they way back to the hotel. Proud of ourselves as we did not get lost. Ate in the hotel, visited the bar for a couple of drinks, then off to bed. Trouble was, by this time, new time zone, totally wide awake and unable to sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment