We took Air China for the first time internationally, and I found out I've been really spoiled flying with Singapore all these times. Service, food and entertainment were pretty ordinary. The seat was uncomfortable but I did manage to get a bit of sleep in before landing in Beijing after 12 hours at 6am local time. Enough, at least, to enact the next part of my master plan, taking the airport train into the city and a taxi from the stop, to hopefully save a bit of money and not have to bother with the "black cars" (dodgy unlicensed taxis with persistent drivers). Of course this didn't entirely work out right, as when we got to Dongzhimen (the stop in the city) the taxis immediately out the front picked us out as tourists and wouldn't give us a decent price. We found a good one around the corner, but he didn't know our hotel, and dropped us at the wrong end of the road it was on. So, we had to carry all our luggage all the way up Wangfujing, the main pedestrian mall in Beijing.
We eventually reached our hotel, and despite its outside appearance, it was quite nice. We went for a five star hotel, something I've never done before in China, and while it's probably not up to Australian five star standard, it's still a nice luxury at a reasonable price for us foreigners. After cleaning ourselves up we headed back to Wangfujing to try some snacks. There is a street just off Wangfujing famous for having all the weird snacks like scorpions and starfish on sticks. We stuck with ordinary things like jianbing (like a burrito with an omelette instead of tortilla) and roujiamo (spicy meat in bread).
After snacks, our friends Li Wei and Gao Yang, who are already married but having their ceremony soon, met us at the hotel. We gave them a present (wine from South Australia, the real wedding gift comes later and is cash, as is usual in China) and Jing had to try on her bridesmaid's dress, then we went out for lunch. Despite Gao Yang leading the way, we made it to Xiabu Xiabu, a chain hotpot restaurant, something I've been missing since last time.
During lunch, they were called away - something to do with the apartment they're renovating. We went with them to have a look. Even a small apartment like this costs a huge amount in Beijing, but at least it's bigger than my shipping container at home. Not much to look at as renovations are going on, and the exterior is a standard Communist-style apartment block (looks 50 years old despite being built in the 90s).
The view from their window.
I missed out on a couple of things last time I was in Beijing, and one of them was the 798 art district. Named after the work unit area it now inhabits (originally containing a factory and living quarters for workers) it is now where many of China's modern artists live and work. There is a lot of sculpture on the streets, and all the graffiti since the factory was closed has been preserved, which gives an interesting feeling of history, from Maoist slogans to vague modern social commentary. Any social commentary, of course, has to be vague, since this is China, and there is a feeling that artists are restricting themselves to certain topics (the evils of capitalism is a big one), but it is still edgy and interesting. Most sculptures, of course, have no inherent message and are just weird.
Chinese political art.
We met Gao Yang again for dinner at a restaurant on Gui Jie (ghost street). We had to take a number and the street was filled with groups waiting for a table, but they gave us free ice cream for waiting. Once we finally got in, I got to try some new things, like "little lobsters" (I think they are what we call yabbies) and spicy bullfrog soup. Another soup had sea snakes in it. So that's my weird food for the day. I had trouble with the little lobsters, you have to put gloves on and rip them apart, and I decided for the amount of meat you end up with it wasn't worth the effort. The frog was better.
Despite earlier experience of Gao Yang's navigation skills we took his advice and walked back towards Wangfujing. We got there but it took the better part of an hour. Had a look around, had some ice cream cones at KFC, and went home. Got into bed after midnight, after being up for more than 20 hours.
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