Hong Kong to Mainland China

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Today is a travel day for us. Leaving beautiful Hong Kong behind, we are heading north and inland to the Capitol of China, Beijing. At 10am our car picks us up from the Marriott and we head out to the Hong Kong Airport. As we leave the hotel we immediately hit bumper to bumper traffic as the streets around the government offices are still closed as the peaceful student sit-in continues with them living in tents on the main streets. It takes us about 20 minutes to clear the downtown and head for the bridge to Kowloon. We cross Kowloon Island and take another bridge to Lantau Island passing the Disneyland turn-off to Sunny Bay, and off to the left, we enjoy seeing our crystal cable car from the day before. We leave Lantau Island, crossing the Pearl River into the New Territories where the airport is located.



We are dropped off at a large modern terminal with great signage ;-). Cope quickly spots the China Southern desk and we check in. Whoops, no matter how light we travel we still cannot escape checking our rolling bags… bummer! At least there is no charge and we are able to snag two aisle seats across from each other. We go through security without a hitch (our VISA and Passports are in order) and we emerge in a large open air concourse with lots of shops and restaurants. Our flight is running late so we take our time having lunch and finally decide to head to the concourse. Thank heavens we decided to get a move on as we have to go down 2 escalators, onto and off a train and up another escalator and down a couple of moving sidewalks. Whew… with luck, we are here with time to spare.



We watch to see how the boarding works and it turns out everyone just gets in one loooong line ;-) Okay, we do too. Another quick check of passports and we’re on. Looks just like a Southwest plane except the flight attendants are in vibrant cranberry outfits and there is a first class section as well as a business class section on the new aircraft.



We leave about 30 minutes late for our 3 ½ hour flight to Beijing. We get a free movie- Angelina Jolie in Maleficent… and we are given a free hot lunch which was really good, Cope said. Free luggage, free movie and free hot lunch…what is the world coming too… LOL.



Arriving in Beijing we follow the other passengers to immigration where our visas and passports are checked. Off to baggage claim…ugh…1/2 an hour later our luggage shows. We start rolling our bags to customs “Nothing to Declare” and hope there will be a Princess Representative on the other side of the doors for our transfer to our hotel.



Yes!!!! There are our names being held by a young lady. Cope pointed and let her know we were there. Her face lit up as she had been waiting awhile for us. We followed her to a car and driver that would take us to the Peninsula Hotel within the “second ring” in downtown Beijing. The woman’s name is Tao and she will be one of the tour guides with us as we travel around China on a land tour for 8 days. On the way in to the hotel she tells us there will be 44 people in two groups and that we are the first to arrive. The rest will be coming in from the USA and Australia in two days, on Sunday.



Once we are in the road to our hotel, we are so glad that she and the driver have picked us up. Although there are streetlights, they are dim and far above the highway. It is sooo dark even along the “freeway” and the traffic is packed, bumper to bumper traffic. I’m sure there are “rules of the road”, but we have no idea what they might be as it appears to be a free for all. We do not see any signage in English and do not have any idea where we are. Tao and the driver say that the traffic is extra bad because it is Friday rush hour at the end of the day. It takes us almost 2 hours to go 18 miles.



Finally, we arrive at the Peninsula. … A beautiful hotel in the heart of Beijing. We check in and are given a lovely room on the 6^th floor, breakfast included ;-) We are so whipped after the flight and trip in from the airport… Good night.

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Photos

Hong Kong
Internet photo

Peninsula Hotel
6th floor room overlooking inner courtyard

Peninsula Checking In
Lobby