Flight was uneventful and food lousy, an airline imitation of Chinese food which they did serve four times just to make sure you “enjoyed” the flight. Two full meals and two snacks which mercifully contained a passable tuna sandwich. Many people are already complaining about the food!
As I expected, we flew the polar route crossing over somewhere west of the pole and arriving to China from Russia. The flight was only bearable because I spent it in a hot kitchen, working as an apprentice to an Italian chef and traveling to Italy near Tuscany learning to make pasta and polenta thanks to Irunu’s suggestion of a book to read on board.
Arrived in Beijing at around 5:30pm into the newest of the three airports serving the city. One is 15 years old, the next one is 8 years old and this new one, made in preparation for the Olympics, just opened. It is hard to describe it properly, grandiose and impressive fall short of doing it justice. It is just incredible! I tried to take a few pictures but, by the time we were ou, the light and the pollution made it difficult. What impressed me the most was the silence and the lack of people. I expected a bustling terminal, choked with people and traffic. It is the world’s Olympics after all. What I found was an incredible beautiful airport, very quiet and empty. Shiny and clean with rows of computer terminals waiting for visitors to register and no one there.
We made it quickly through immigration and customs and were met by Sonia, our Spanish speaking Chinese guide. It took us maybe 40 minutes to get everyone together and head for the buses outside. As we waited, many huge flat screens were tuned to the different events at the Olympic venues. In particular, we watched men’s weight lifting in a huge screen in front of us where a few Chinese contenders battled it out with athletes from several countries behind the old iron curtain (too many names to recall). Every time one of the Chinese made a successful attempt, a shout of approval followed. Where from? I had no idea as they were few people visible around. Even the Chinese military or police guards, standing in attentions and rigidly posed with their arms straight down their sides wearing impeccably white gloves, stared awkwardly at the screens without turning their heads and actually smiled when the cheers came.
Sonia, whose real name is JinJin (twinkling of the stars) made the ride to the hotel very entertaining. In spite of our tiredness we listened to her recount of Chinese history, information about the city and its people, hints on what to do or not and her cell phone number in case of need. I learned many things. For example, Beijing means the "capital of the north". They grow watermelons and peaches in the surrounding hills and the city prepared for the Olympics by reducing traffic to a half by limiting vehicles on the streets depending on odd or even license plates on alternating days. Also all highways had the leftmost lane restricted to traffic pertaining to the games only. JinJin explained that this way, all residents of Beijing participated in the games by helping out athletes and visitors have a more pleasant stay and be able to get to the venues on time.
The hotel was nice and had a modern Chinese feel. Low building, traditional Chinese entrance. We were met by HP people from Houston and invited to a Chinese dinner after a quick visit to our rooms for a much needed shower. At dinner we were informed that all our scheduled plans were changed because the tickets for the games that HP had purchased were bogus and they had had to go today, upon arriving, to the different venues to try to buy new tickets. They were not able to buy enough for us all to go as a group but managed to buy lots at different events. They are trying to sort out the logistics of it all and will give us a new schedule at breakfast. That will happen in a few hours so I better try to catch some more zzzzs before the wake-up call!
As I expected, we flew the polar route crossing over somewhere west of the pole and arriving to China from Russia. The flight was only bearable because I spent it in a hot kitchen, working as an apprentice to an Italian chef and traveling to Italy near Tuscany learning to make pasta and polenta thanks to Irunu’s suggestion of a book to read on board.
Arrived in Beijing at around 5:30pm into the newest of the three airports serving the city. One is 15 years old, the next one is 8 years old and this new one, made in preparation for the Olympics, just opened. It is hard to describe it properly, grandiose and impressive fall short of doing it justice. It is just incredible! I tried to take a few pictures but, by the time we were ou, the light and the pollution made it difficult. What impressed me the most was the silence and the lack of people. I expected a bustling terminal, choked with people and traffic. It is the world’s Olympics after all. What I found was an incredible beautiful airport, very quiet and empty. Shiny and clean with rows of computer terminals waiting for visitors to register and no one there.
We made it quickly through immigration and customs and were met by Sonia, our Spanish speaking Chinese guide. It took us maybe 40 minutes to get everyone together and head for the buses outside. As we waited, many huge flat screens were tuned to the different events at the Olympic venues. In particular, we watched men’s weight lifting in a huge screen in front of us where a few Chinese contenders battled it out with athletes from several countries behind the old iron curtain (too many names to recall). Every time one of the Chinese made a successful attempt, a shout of approval followed. Where from? I had no idea as they were few people visible around. Even the Chinese military or police guards, standing in attentions and rigidly posed with their arms straight down their sides wearing impeccably white gloves, stared awkwardly at the screens without turning their heads and actually smiled when the cheers came.
Sonia, whose real name is JinJin (twinkling of the stars) made the ride to the hotel very entertaining. In spite of our tiredness we listened to her recount of Chinese history, information about the city and its people, hints on what to do or not and her cell phone number in case of need. I learned many things. For example, Beijing means the "capital of the north". They grow watermelons and peaches in the surrounding hills and the city prepared for the Olympics by reducing traffic to a half by limiting vehicles on the streets depending on odd or even license plates on alternating days. Also all highways had the leftmost lane restricted to traffic pertaining to the games only. JinJin explained that this way, all residents of Beijing participated in the games by helping out athletes and visitors have a more pleasant stay and be able to get to the venues on time.
The hotel was nice and had a modern Chinese feel. Low building, traditional Chinese entrance. We were met by HP people from Houston and invited to a Chinese dinner after a quick visit to our rooms for a much needed shower. At dinner we were informed that all our scheduled plans were changed because the tickets for the games that HP had purchased were bogus and they had had to go today, upon arriving, to the different venues to try to buy new tickets. They were not able to buy enough for us all to go as a group but managed to buy lots at different events. They are trying to sort out the logistics of it all and will give us a new schedule at breakfast. That will happen in a few hours so I better try to catch some more zzzzs before the wake-up call!
1 comentario:
Great to hear from you - got to get Luis to work on the aesthetics.
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