The Beijing airport is really nice, clean, and huge! I bet it's all thanks to the Olympics back in 2008. It was easy to navigate too, which was nice. After getting off the plane from a 16 hour journey, the first thing I did was look for a bathroom. Unaware that the airport offered "western style" restrooms (basically a "sit down" toilet), I ended up staring into the dark depths of a China standard "squat pot", marveling at what I was going to be dealing with. Its technique requires a certain mastery, and I certainly don't have it yet.
After that "Welcome to Asia" breaking-in experience, we found the train station within the giant airport, and took the train to the nearest subway. Here we were introduced to how crowded and insane a Chinese metro station can be! Pushing and shoving our way through, we made it to our subway exit. Amazingly, John was able to navigate us there with no trouble at all. I would have been at a total loss without him!
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| Sunrise Hostel - Beijing |
We walked up the steps onto the street and the cold winds hit us, welcoming us to winter in northern China. Jet-lagged and slightly delirious, we walked a few blocks until we found our hostel. "Sunrise Hostel" stood at the end of a small alley-way (known as hutongs in Beijing), and its warm lights and out-of-place Christian Christmas decor stood out as homely and welcoming. As cheesy as they were, the decorations made me happy. I wasn't expecting to see any signs of a Western Christmas- I assumed that as a communist country China would have no indications of a religious celebration at all. I guess they wanted to make us tourists happy though.
After checking in and chatting with a nice girl at the front desk, we were unpacked and ready to face the city! Exhausted from our trip, all we had time for that night was a chilly walk to the nearby "Night Market"- where John was introduced to what would soon be his new favorite place to eat ever. Skimming the local delicacies (none of which looked edible to me), I knew we were in for a treat- although maybe just not one you could eat.
Back at the hostel, before getting ready to sleep, I decided to search a few things on the internet- test out communistic censorship- you know, just for kicks. I tried to access facebook and youTube, but no dice. I then decided to google "Tiananmen Square Massacre", to see just how much the Chinese government covered it up. The first article that popped up was entitled "Tiananmen Square Massacre a Myth"... Despite this censorship and sense of "big brother watching", I could already tell Beijing would be great!
