We got to the airport in plenty of time, weather was nice, all was going smoothly until...we make it through security (i didn't get searched - yay) but our plane was delayed. And delayed. And delayed. Our gate didn't even have a plane at it! Turns out the weather was bad which means it was late leaving Beijing to get to us before going back. On its way to us we had massive storms which meant it couldn't land so it went to another airport. Several hours later, after a free drink and having read most of the guide book a plane appeared. It was not ours, boooo. We did then hear that we'd changed gate and was leaving at 5, over 3 and a half hours late. We were going to miss the opera and the Temple of Heaven and instead saw lots of Chinese people sitting and waiting. No ones fault, an act of nature but still, annoying. If we had driven it would have taken 14 hours so still better, but only just!
Once boarded the plane we did get an in flight meal which we did not expect. A can of some strange porridge type substance that was horrible, some what looked like pickled gherkin, shrimp crackers, artificial cake and a chocolate wafer. A very odd meal indeed. Eventually when we made it to Beijing we were greeted by 'Megan' our guide whilst in the city. Still raining i might add we boarded our bus to go to our hotel having missed everything from today. Turns out we are going to the opera after the great wall and ming tombs tomorrow so all is not lost.
Megan was very informative on our journey. She started by telling us about the name Beijing. Bei means north and jing means capital. This was the capital of new China. The previous capital was Nanying, Nan meaning south, so you had the capital in the south then the north. The jing is the character you see at the start of every Beijing based number plate so you know they are from here. She was also telling us about the layout of the city. The CBD is in the east and to the north you have silicon valley and i think she said the university. The south east is the BDA - Beijing Development Area for Science and Technology and to the west is the financial district. In the centre is the ancient town, hudong meaning alleyways. This looks like a crazy version of the Burgess Model.
Throughout Beijing they have 6, yes 6, ring roads in and around this city model. This city must be huge! She also said that statistics say that each month there are 58000 more cars on the road, crazy. During the Olympics they tried to control the congestion and pollution by not allowing people to drive their cars on one day a week, so number plates starting or ending (i can't remember which) with 0 or 1 on one day, 2-3 the next day etc. All can drive on bank holidays. Very interesting, takes me back to A level coursework and the nethos in Athens. Anyho enough of the lesson, we got here eventually.
Tonight we were left to our own devices to sort dinner, hmmm easy option - the hotel buffet, or hard - attempt a local restaurant. We as always make it hard. We tried pizza but the wave the guy gave us was goodbye not hello so we went over to Sizzler. After somehow making the guy understand we wanted food we were seated and ordering steak teryaki medium rare - oh yeah i managed it. We went back chuffed we braved it alone!
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