Chinese New Year in Beijing - Gawd it was cold!

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Enis and I flew to Beijing for Chinese New Year. I checked the weather and I knew it would be cold, but I had my hat, gloves, long underwear, wool tights, thick wool pashmina, heavy wool sweaters, and a bright orange North Face coat, so I felt prepared. And I was. Sort of. Good gravy it was so cold!!!!!!!! And windy! I hadn't been in cold like that in a long time. Our first night there, it was -10C. It got warmer after that though and held steady around -5C at night, and even got above 0C one day.

When we arrived, it was already dark and we found our hostel - 365 Inn - with no trouble. They had emailed good directions and we took the airport shuttle bus to the train station, then took the metro. So easy. 365 Inn had a fantastic cafe downstairs called Sakura Cafe for some reason. We walked through the restaurant, checked in, and the girl said she needed to keep our passports. This is not unusual in China, so I said okay and we went upstairs to our room. The room had two full beds (not quite big enough to be doubles) and a table and nice bathroom with hot water and the heat in the room worked great. I liked this hostel a lot, but if you book a standard room instead of a deluxe, they don't clean the room or change the linens and for some weird reason, we only got face towels instead of shower towels. I thought that was a mistake, but when I asked for shower towels, they said standard rooms don't get them. O - kay. We used face towels all week, but we did get fresh ones every day. They seemed to clean the bathroom every day, but not the linens, so I had to request that mid-week. Again, I think linen changes are not included with standard rooms, so check this before you stay there. The location cannot be beat, and the staff was really helpful and spoke English.

We had dinner at Sakura and then went to our room to put all our gear on to go outside and walk around. Tonight was the actual Chinese New Year, so we were hoping to see some fireworks. The Chinese love them, or the noise of them at least. While we were upstairs, the girl from the front desk came to our room and started asking questions about Enis' visa. We didn't understand and her English wasn't that good, so we were getting a bit frustrated at to what the problem was. She said something about the police wanting to know where he was working since he was on a business visa. We had no answer for that since his multiple entry business visa was obtained somewhat through 'mafia' methods in Turkey. So she asked if she could keep his passport and we said yes, then we went out.

We walked around the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square area and took some photos. There was nobody around. Almost nobody, but it was only about 9:00. We kept walking and eventually made our way back near the hotel where the fireworks were in full swing on our street and around Qianmen Street. They were really noisy and they would set off strips of firecrackers that would pop for at least a minute at a time, but there wasn't much color to any of them, and I quickly got bored and cold and tired. Enis was having fun though, so we stayed out past midnight listening and watching.

We got back to the hotel and the manager came up to our room with the other gal from the desk to explain the problem. Enis and I had planned to go to Japan for Chinese New Year, but it was too expensive, so we went to Beijing. He had a multiple entry business visa because Turks can't get a multi entry tourist visa for some stupid reason. The manager explained that his visa was only good for 30 days and then he was supposed to leave the country and re-enter to make it valid for another 30 days. I looked at his visa. Well, I'll be damned. She was right. I understood completely. Enis was now officially and illegal alien in China. Good grief. So the manager explained that he needed to get a visa extension, but all the offices were closed all week for the New Year, or she could help him get it. She suggested we cancel our return flight and take the overnight train back to Shanghai in a few days because they don't check passports at the train station. The cost was the same, so we reserved two soft sleepers for our return. We decided since we couldn't do anything about it in Beijing that we would just enjoy our time and worry about it when we returned to Shanghai.

So we went to bed in our warm room.

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Photos

Qianmen Street
This street is very old but has been restored and looks shiny and new. It was beautifully decorated for the New Year. When I went here with my sister in May, the buildings on this street were almost completely empty. This time, they were almost all rented with upscale shops, a Costa Coffee (yeh!) and of course, a Starbucks that had a building all its own.

Enis and Fireworks
This was taken near our hotel in a brief moment of color.

Tiananmen Square
The Monument to the People at Tiananmen Square at night.

Mao's Mausoleum
Supposedly Mao himself is inside a glass case inside and can be viewed six days a week. Is it really him? I don't know. I've never bothered to go inside, but my friend says he is totally orange and looks like wax.

Forbidden City at Night
Enis in front of the entrance to the Forbidden City. We had no idea just how crowded this street would be the next day.