Day 4: Beijing (Tues; 1 Apr)

We both woke up early (3 AM for me) so apparently, we're not on China time yet...

The buffet breakfast was open a 6 AM, we were the first people there (at 6 AM...).  We had the layout down so we each went to our respective favorites.  We weren't in a hurry to finish breakfast as we weren't in a hurry to get out there walking after our 8 mile jaunt yesterday - so we hung out in the suite (which was quite comfortable btw) until 11 AM then walked to a nearby McDonald's to see if it was the same in China as it is at home.  The answer:  Not too different but, we had a hard time ordering using the screen enter system (in Chinese) and the counter clerk didn't speak English.  Finally, someone from the back (a manager maybe?) took pity on us and knew enough English to allow her to order for us. Donna paid via Ally Pay (Chinese version of Pay Pal, I think) as she did for dinner the night before. That method of payment seems to work well, especially since I have my phone turned off (hence, no access to apps) so only Donna can pay for essentially everything - win/win - I don't really want to know what anything costs (no matter what it is or where we are I'll think it's too expensive, unless, off course it's an airplane, motorcycle, bicycle or parts thereof).  For those of you who don't know, Donna is the budget master, if she buys it we can afford it. This allows me to buy things (via CC, etc.) until she reels me in....  Anyway, back to McD's - we both had fish fillet sandwiches with french fries, virtually identical to that in the US.

We returned to the hotel and had coffee in the 17th floor lounge then checked out at 2 PM.  We used Didi (I think I'm correct this time...)  to go to the other hotel in Beijing where we'd meet the rest of the people on Tour 1*, which entails the second portion of our trip.

*Note: I've essentially broken our entire trip down into 4 parts:

1. Fly to, stay in and explore Beijing on our own;
2. Tour 1 - the tourist exploration of China via tour bus;
3. Tour 2 - the genealogy exploration via tour bus and of Donna's grandparent's villages with student researchers; and
4. Singapore on our own, where we spent 3 days essentially on our way home.
   

The Didi ride was, again, an eye-opener.  The trip only took 20 minutes but looking at my journal I've described it as, once again, insane.  This, directly from my journal

 ... trip took 20 minutes, traffic insane.  Not so much stopped/slow but just a semblance of traffic rules, the usual number (high) of rude/aggressive car drivers, many scooters who follow no apparent rules (other than don't hit or get hit...) and ride at excessive speed everywhere...

The route to the hotel appeared simple enough until the end where the navigation app (not Google maps, which is not allowed in China) took us through parking lots, etc. to get to the hotel entrance.  I don't know how you'd do it the old fashion way (i.e. with a paper map) and I'm more than just glad I didn't have to do it.  

I'm not sure how I feel about these drivers as they seem to be a bit like Jeckyll and Hyde in that, like most, probably all, Chinese nationals I interfaced with, when talking to them person they are very polite and seem quite personable.  But, in a crowded (room, airplane, train, sidewalk) or congested (highway, freeway) situation watch out, they are inconsiderate bordering rude.  I've never been elbowed, pushed, etc. more (or even close to) any place in the world.  It has to be due to the extreme population density.  Beijing, for example, has 20 million people compared to LA's 4 million.  And while the population density (people per square mile) of Beijing is reported as about one third of that of LA, they can't possibly use all the land attributed to Beijing for people - walking in LA seems a lot easier than walking in Beijing because there are less people.  Or, it's just me...

We checked in to the Gehau New Century Hotel and were in our room by about 3 PM.  The check-in was a bit chaotic, as it was at our first hotel with language and passport confusion but we got through it.  (For the rest of the trip until we got to Singapore, our tour guide, Stony, checked us in to every hotel, which made it much, much easier...).  Our room was on the 5th floor where we relaxed until about 5:30 PM then headed out to walk to dinner.  Donna was aware that we would be eating a lot of Chinese food for the next couple of weeks and took pity on me by suggesting we look for a pizza place she had seen.  We went out looking for it but no joy, so we settled for KFC. It must have been quite humorous for the other (Chinese) customers as we tried to order to the non-English speaking counter person by pointing to our legs and thighs then to the trays of fried chicken behind the counter.  We also asked for (mimicked for) what we thought would be mashed potatoes (you try mimicking that one...).  We ended up with drumsticks, thighs, and french fries - and called it a win.  Just like McD's, the KFC food was just like that in the USA.  (The next morning we had a kind-of American breakfast buffet, as we would at all of the hotels for the duration, but lunch and dinner (except for 2 occasions) would be exclusively Chinese banquets for the next 18 days. Donna was prescient...).

 

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and ran into the tour organizer, Henry, and his wife, Clarita, (from Arizona) and our Chinese tour leader, Stony, who were walking to dinner.  We got to the hotel then at 7:30 gathered for a tour group introduction where we met the rest of the T1 group, mostly from NorCal.  We would be spending an inordinate amount of time with these folks (29 of us total...) on the tour bus, in hotels and at every meal over the next few days.  The next 2 hours was spent mostly reviewing the Chinese app WeChat (which I took to be the Chinese equivalent to Facebook, but, as I don't use FB anyway, this is just a guess on my part - perhaps Donna will chime in here and correct me...) which was the way the tour leader could communicate with the group and also find lost group members (which would happen more than once in the next couple of weeks...). As with all disparate groups, at least in my experience, there's always one (or, if you're unlucky, more than one) person who just gets on your nerves - this group was no exception.  Just sayin'... I admit that I was probably that person to one or more other folks on the bus.  Just sayin' again...  The meeting wrapped up about 9:30 and it was lights out for us by 10 PM for another restful, normal night's sleep (not...).  Not much in the way of pictures today...

 

McD's - pretty much the same as in the states, the still deep fry the pies though :-)

The Gehau New Century Hotel, we were on the 5th floor...

... our room ...

... and our view.  Nothing special but we weren't in the room much.

 

 

A preview of the next 8 days...

Be sure to check Donna's comments/corrections, although I've added her as an author/admin we can't seem to figure out how to let her directly edit the drafts (I can hear my kids now - old people, sheesh...)

 

Day 3: Beijing (Mon; 31 Mar)

    Pre-log note:  Post trip insights will be (parenthetical italicized). 

    We were up at 6 AM local time.  Were our body clocks on China time already?  It could happen... (it didn't).  Breakfast at the hotel buffet was good; it was essentially Asian food based but attempted to accommodate westerners with eggs, bacon and "Americano" coffee.  We explored the hotel after breakfast and found that there was a much more extravagant breakfast buffet on the first floor but it cost $14.  Our buffet, which was included with the room, was good enough.

    We set out on a walk for our first exploration of Beijing.  First though, I'll transfer the notes regarding traffic and such directly from my journal to the blog (with only minor editing) as this was our first real encounter with it all (the ride from the airport, being essentially chauffeured , was just a preview...).  

From my journal...

Beijing traffic is eye watering

• Overwhelmingly electric sit-down scooters (like Vespas)
• Normal amount of cars, trucks, buses for a big city (LA-like)
• The scooters are the most disturbing
• There are thousands of them
• There appears to be only some semblance of rules that they follow
• They ride in the streets, bike lanes, sidewalks transitioning between all of them in any direction
• Only a few (~15%) wear helmets
• It was not uncommon to see a mother riding with small children sitting/standing in front, a kindergarten-aged kid sitting on back (sometimes both!), no one wearing a helmet
  
• They weave in and out of car/bike/pedestrian and other scooter traffic 
• There is a total disregard for traffic lights or stop signs; they only actually stop if there's a high probability of getting hit

• The cars are only a bit more orderly
• No red light running, wrong-way or driving n the sidewalks but right turning cars often just bull through pedestrians and don't slow at all if they get there first (it's essentially a game of chicken)
• There are bicycles
• About a 50/50 mix of pedal bikes and e-bikes
• Bicycles appear most vulnerable
• The above said, we didn't see one scooter accident and only a couple of car-car fender benders (on the freeway where the scooters aren't allowed)
• It seems that the folks who live in Beijing have adapted to the chaos of getting from one place to another with minimal carnage
  

(Post trip note - we saw fewer accidents during our 3+ weeks in China then we see in one day driving through LA...)

    So, back to our walk...  It turns out that I captured much of it on my watch, which was unexpected as I thought that my watch data capture depended on my phone, and my phone was turned off for our entire time in China.  Anyway, I discovered (when we got home) that all of our walking was logged but only this first walk was mapped.  Don't ask why, they call them smart watches for a reason, and apparently the reason is not that you have to be smart to buy one...

    Our objective was to visit the Overseas Chinese History Museum.  Our planned route was essentially due north from the hotel along Dongsi N St to the Beixin Brg 3 Alley (we missed this turn because it really is an alley), east to Dongzhimen N St.  

    As you can see on the map we over-achieved - some cynical folks might call it getting lost.  After a few missed and/or extra turns we got there only to find out it was closed!  But, we did get an up close and personal experience with the traffic, in particular the scooters on the sidewalks.  I'm pretty sure the first thing to wear out / break on any scooter is the horn!  Another "you can't help but notice" sight - the number of electric cars.  The variety of manufacturers and models by each manufacturer is impressive.  We saw a few Teslas but they were vastly outnumbered by at least 10 to 1 by Chinese makes. Word on the street is that Tesla is nervous about China entering the US electric car market - they should be. It seems China is all in regarding electric powered vehicles - cars and scooters.  Our walking route took us through what appeared to the a "food district" in that 2 out of 3 (or more) street shops that we passed were restaurants.  Most were Chinese food (duh...) but there was a scattering of others - KFC, Subway, McD and "Hamburg Steak" restaurant.  We left the hotel about 10:30 so by the time we got up the road a bit (we stopped to check out "WuMart") I think a lot, and I mean a lot, of folks were out for lunch.  There is a very robust food delivery business - entirely on e-scooters.  These guys seemed to be the most aggressive scooter riders.

    At the museum we sat for a rest/snack break and questioned whether we should walk back or try our hand at hailing a Didi (Uber).  Walking won and we made our way back by almost the same route, less (some of) the mistakes.  There appeared to be much less foot traffic - lunch rush over?  We got back to the hotel about 2 PM having walked about 5 miles.

    We checked out a "tea service" in the 17th floor lounge and had "coffee" and cake snacks.  I highlight "coffee" because I didn't know at the time that the last time I'd have coffee as I know it would be the morning we left Simi Valley...

    At 5 PM we walked to the Sifi Mingfu Roasted Duck Restaurant.  We got there about 5:15 and there was 20 minute wait for a table already (on a Monday no less...).  Donna had picked this restaurant out while planning the trip (months in advance) and it was very nice.  Big with several tables and what seemed like a 50/50 mix of tourists and locals.  We had roasted duck (of course) with pea shoots and hot and sour soup, all excellent.  They actually came by our table to show us the whole roasted duck then carved it table side.  We saw them do this several times so it appears to be the standard procedure.  Donna caught an error in the bill (I was surprised... NOT!) so they comped us some takeout desserts.

    During the walk back we noticed that part of the main road we came by (Wangfujing Ave) had been closed to all but foot traffic (read no scooter dodging...) and was really crowded with people walking/shopping amongst many recognized name brand shops - Apple, Aditas, Nike, Omega, etc., etc.).  The street was lit up every bit as much as New York or Las Vegas (The brightly lighted downtown sections would become a common encounter when we visited the other big cities).  

    During our daytime walk I think we saw 2, maybe 3 policemen, all unarmed (well, no guns anyway).  The night walk was notably different.  We saw several policemen, still without guns but they all carried batons and crowd shields (like those you see on TV during riots).  There were a lot of people out (In hindsight this crowd was light, wait until I tell you about Xi'An and the Terracotta Army...) but we saw no signs of trouble - just a lot of people out enjoying the evening.

    We got back to the hotel about 9 PM having walked 8.8 miles for the day!  (Over the course of the next 26 days or so we'll have walked ~130 miles).

The breakfast buffet...

Typical scooter and bike parking along sidewalk

Food delivery scooters - check the guy on the right zooming down the sidewalk

 

WuMart - Looks like a small corner store.  Inside it's 4 levels and has quite a variety

No shortage of eggs in China...

Fish on ice - typical of every market/store we went into

Donna supervises the duck carving...

 

Walking towards the pedestrians-only road

 

Some of the high-end shops, there were several

There were several street performers

More of the pedestrian-only road

This was incredible - the white dragon romped around in the room to music

    So, that's it for our first day in Beijing...

 

Note:  I haven't figured out how to let Donna directly edit the blog so please see her comments below... 

Addendum:  I left out a couple of pictures from this post, included below...

The living room part of our suite at the Renaissance...

 

... and the bedroom/bathroom part.  Nice!

Donna wanted to point out the unusual duck wrappers, I didn't know any better...

Same comment re wrapper, different view...