China Trip Day 1 Beijing Roast Duck |

15 July 2009

Welcome to Beijing

The trouble started at customs, the air hostesses had given us health declaration forms and even though I had a cold I put down all clear, Tiff on the other hand being too honest for her own good had put down sinus trouble that she had had since she was a kid. As soon as the lady at the customs counter saw that Tiff had put down something in the ailments section she said “oh o” whacked a mask on Tiff and led her to a small partitioned off area. I stayed nearby while Tiff was waiting to be seen, Tiff then said I should go collect the baggage and see if I could find Song and Peichen so they could help translate. At this point I should probably mention that the airport was massive in comparison to anything I had ever seen in Australia, it had it’s own full size train to take you from the terminal to the baggage collection building and nobody spoke English. I had finally decided that I should probably jump on the train as it had pictures of bags on it and an arrow, so I guessed that it was probably heading towards baggage collection. And the doors had just slid shut when Tiff arrived on the platform. Someone had finally come and seen Tiff and made it clear that Tiff should fill in another health declaration form and this time tick the box that said all clear.

Lucky for us the train only made the one stop and that was the luggage collection building so I only had to wait there for Tiff to arrive on the next train. We collected our bags and headed for the exit.

Song and Peichen were waiting for us just outside the exit, Song had made them get there an hour early and had stood poised in waiting the whole time, she was very excited. It was really good to catch up with Song and Peichen and had been about 18 months since they had left Australia. Tiff and Song spoke animatedly while peichen and I caught up.

The first thing to strike me when we got to the car was that the steering wheel was on the wrong side and when we went to take off Song and Peichen didn’t worry about a seat belt and our seatbelts looked like they had never been used. As we drove out of the airport we got our first good look at Bejing. Between the huge concrete structures there was lush green foliage, there was also a constant layer of smog that hung low in the sky and blocked out the sun giving the day a filtered glare. A massive shock to someone who is used to clear blue skies and glorious sunshine. It didn’t take long to get to heavily built up areas with very little vegetation, the roads were full of cars, bikes, trucks and other weird contraptions. At first appearance all the vehicles appeared to be operating in absolute chaos it wasn’t until we had been there for a few days that we started to realise there was a method in the madness, basically the bikes mostly clung to the far right or left and other drivers would skirt around them as necessary. The honking of a horn in Beijing is more of a ‘look I am here’ than the ‘want to fight’ that it is in Australia. In all the madness I only saw one accident in three days, Brisbane on a Friday afternoon has at least one accident per street corner.

The View

Song and Peichen took us straight to a roast duck restaurant and it was awesome, here we are nearly two years later and the taste of that duck still makes my mouth water, Beijing is famous for its roast duck and for good reason. We also discovered that an 800ml bottle of beer could cost as little as $0.80 Au and tastes delicious a bit like corona and really easy to drink especially in the humidity that is Beijing in the summer time. Song and Peichen ordered way to much food as always however it was worth it when they brought out that massive roast duck and ceremoniously carved it up right there at the table.

Carving it up at the Roast Duck Restaurant

Delicious Beer

After lunch we headed back to songs mums place where we would be staying for the first night. Songs mum owns a house in the suburbs and regularly stays there leaving the unit somewhat vacant. The unit was very nicely decorated on the inside, Jiaao was quick to point out that the Chinese in general pay a lot more attention to the detail when they are decorating than Ausies do. I think Jiaao just likes to point out how much better the Chinese are whenever he gets the chance, and I like to take Jiaao out for a surf whenever he comes over. Units in Beijing are sold by the m2 and are usually devoid of most things, it is up to the purchaser to fit out the inside. Songs Mum dropped by with her boyfriend to say g’day before heading off to her place in the suburbs.

We all caught the train into another part of the city so Song could do a practice run with her makeup for the wedding in a couple of days. The train only cost 2 RMB ($1Au = about 6 RMB) anywhere in the city, a measure designed to encourage the locals to use the public transport. While Song got her makeup on under Tiff’s watchful eye Peichen and I caught up on the events over the last 18 months.

The lads discussing world peace or the footy

Song getting hair and makeup practice run

Afterwards we all headed out to a local restaurant where Song and Peichen introduced us to many of the traditional cuisines one of which was goats penis, Tiff made sure she got a picture of me trying this particular delicacy to put on the world wide web. Tiff and I managed to pay for this meal an exceedingly difficult task around Song and Peichen using the ruse that I wanted the experience of using a foreign currency. Speaking of which to feed the four of us cost a little over 100 RMB or around $20Au with plenty of food and beer (much to Tiff’s delight).