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The Cab Line at PEK
Our laoshis told us not to take a cab out of the line for fear of where we may end up.China is freakin' sweet...but I must say today was a little scary.
We got off the plane in the middle of the afternoon to find the international arrivals section of PEK airport almost empty. We got through customs in about 5 minutes and waited on our bags for about 20. After figuring out how to work the Chinese ATM, we went out on the street to try to nab a cab to take to our little Super 8 hotel in some hutong (alley) half an hour away in another part of the city. I made friends with the cab driver and got his business card, the first of many to come in the weeks ahead. The cabbie got us on the freeway in his JinBei van (one of the many Chinese brands of car which I hope to invest in) and man did he drive like a demon. We were in and out of every open lane on that road and I thought we were going to get into an accident at least 4 different times.
When we arrived at our hutong, he let us out on the street because the alley was too small for the van so
Cab
Another of the many cabs we will get to take in this trip. we unloaded and coughed up the 400 kuai between us and set off for the hotel. We were greeted by a very relieved looking Zhao laoshi and Wang laoshi who then took us to dengji (check-in) at the hotel. We each got double rooms dropped off our bags and set out to explore the street where we found lots of shops and our first squat toilets....the only really bad thing I can complain about. I guess I have to work on developing those leg muscles.
That night, the laoshis helped us get cabs to the CCTV station downtown. This cab ride was incredibly more frightening than the last one because Beijing drivers couldn't care less about who's in front of them. There are no traffic laws to speak of and surprisingly there are very few accidents, as I have yet to see a single police car outside of the airport.
Xiao Meng, the Head of On-Air Promotion at CCTV HD, took us on a tour of the station where we saw actors doing voice overs, video editing and got to chill in the exec lounge as we were enlightened (in Chinese of course) about all CCTV does and
Olympic Billboard
China is ready for it's debut! about the new tower being built nearby. After the tour we were escorted out of the tour and into a flashy restaurant across the street by the name of Mao Jia (House of Mao) with a big portrait of Chairman Mao right as you entered the lobby. We were taken upstairs to a fancy room that was obviously for the high-rollers where we were treated to a fantastic dinner with all sorts of foods from all over Beijing. The cuisine was amazing and I must say it was an altogether great experience!
After we thanked our host and returned home on another riveting car ride, which I had already gotten used to after being in the country less than 12 hours. My new buddies, Donnie, Kristine, Alexa, Emily, and I as well as my old friend Shana all went over to one of the local restaurants and ordered some Qingdao and Yanjing pijius (beers) to celebrate the end of a long day. Now what I'm about to tell you may shock you but it just goes to explain the Chinese hospitality: The restaurant was sad to inform us that they only had 3 cold bottles and that the rest
would be warm. We told them not to worry about it and we would be fine with half and half, but no...the man at the counter was very adamant about making his guests comfortable so he went across the street to the supermarket to buy us a few more cold beers that were at no additional charge to what we would have paid anyway. That right there is service and I would be surprised to ever find anything comparable to that in the U.S.
All in all, Day 1 was a success and the rest of the trip should be a great one!
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Lillie
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its so cool. i wish i could see it for real though :[[ the garden was so pretty, the towers are prety sweet, and the whole eating turtles thing... gross. you should for sure try it though, maybe its super good?? haha, and the whole KFC thing, they would. love you :] miss you :]