On to China

On Friday we did not do much except hang around the hotel area.  We packed for our trip to China, we packed for Okinawa where we are going the day after China, we hung around and we packed the rest of our stuff because once again, we were checking out of the hotel.  Already we have accumulated stuff so we had to buy a couple of boxes from the concierge and pack them as well.  We have not yet decided if we will mail them back to ourselves or if we will take them as additional carry-ons.  We will have to see how much we can fit in our luggage when we are ready to pack for good in another couple of weeks.

On Saturday we slept in a little bit before heading up for breakfast.  After breakfast we ran a couple of errands including hitting up the ATM one last time and buying our train tickets.  We called the concierge about a half hour before checking out asking them to send someone to our room to pick up our luggage for storage over the next week and once again they sent a tiny little woman.  We checked out of the hotel at 11 giving us more than enough time to make the 3 minute walk to the train station.  The train to the airport is actually not in the main train station where we have been taking all of our trains from since we have been in Nagoya.  Those trains are close enough but the airport train runs on a private line which has a station next to, but a little closer to the hotel.  We got to the platform at about 11:05 and waited exactly 15 minutes for our 11:20 train.  The train to the airport is very convenient.  When we were last here we took a cab to the airport.  It was about $100 and took over an hour to get there.  We knew the price at the time but we took the cab anyway because Chris thought at the time that work was paying for the cab ride (this is another story altogether).  The train, however, costs about $14 per person and gets you there in 24-34 minutes, depending on the train.  It also drops you off right in the terminal about a 2 minute walk from the check-in counter. 

We arrived at the airport at 11:48 and by 11:50 we were standing in line to check in.  The previous night we had asked another of Chris’s co-workers who travels to Japan several times per year how much time to give ourselves prior to check-in.  He told us that the airport is probably only 30% utilized and it is rarely busy.  Even though our flight was an international flight we allowed ourselves just about 2 hours.  We figured this would be plenty of time.  Every airline had no line at their check-in counters, except Korean Air, which we would be flying.  The line was HUGE.  There were self-service kiosks available but they seemed to be broken.  We did not check in online because there appeared to be some glitch in their on-line software which only allowed their frequent flyers to check in online.  We signed up for their frequent flyer program but not until after we bought our tickets and another on-line glitch seemed to not allow you to marry up your previously bought ticket with a frequent flyer number.  Chris never got around to calling the airline to match up our flyer number with the ticket number so we were unable to check in online.  It seemed from the line that no one else was able to check in online either because we waited in line just about 1 hour to get to the check-in counter.  Along the way there was a sign warning us that due to high winds our flight may be delayed or cancelled so we should stay outside of the secure area until they called us.  We decided that if no one said anything to us we would enter the secure area because based on how long we waited in line for checking in, we would likely miss our flight because we still had to clear both customs and security.  We got our boarding passes and were happy to see that security and customs only took us another 10 minutes.  We got to our gate to find only about a dozen others already waiting and by now the flight was scheduled to start boarding in less than 20 minutes.  All signs in the airport indicated that the flight would not be delayed but based on the amount of people waiting we did not believe it.  Finally, about 10 minutes later, everyone started showing up. 

Empty airport

our plane.  boarding and de-planing from two doors made things smooth

If it was not for the long line to check in, Korean Airlines would be our absolute favorite airline of all time.  The series of events that happened between the time they started boarding and when we got to China is what we feel makes them so good.  Honestly we aren’t sure if it was the airline that was so good or the fact that we were in a country where people actually follow rules and are more polite and orderly that did it for us.  They started the boarding process in three different languages, Japanese, Korean, and English.  This was good because we didn’t speak enough Japanese to know when it was our turn to board and we speak no Korean.  As they called the rows everyone lined up in two single file lines, one for each person taking tickets.  There was no cutting, no pushing, no one trying to sneak in to board when they weren’t supposed to.  It was very nice.  When we got on the plane the flight attendants told us which aisle to go down.  As we walked down the aisle they asked people who were standing in the aisles to please move out of the way so that people (like us) who were behind them could pass.  And the people moved.  We loaded our small carry-on suitcase into the overhead with the intention of putting our backpack between our feet.  We did not want to be greedy with the overhead space but the flight attendant came by and took the bag and put it in the overhead.  The flight attendants were not rude, they smiled, and they were generally pleasant.  The plane left the gate exactly on time.  It was like we were living in some kind of fantasy world but then it got better.  They served a meal even though we were in coach.  They served us juice and they asked us if we wanted seconds.  Every seat had a personal television loaded with TV shows, music and movies, even though it was just a 2 hour flight.  When the plane landed everyone got up just like they do back home but again it was pretty orderly.  The people from rows behind us did not pretend they didn’t know we were trying to get out.  From the time the plane arrived at the gate and everyone stood up, we were off the plane in under 5 minutes and we were sitting in row 52!  On the way out the flight attendants all lined up and thanked us and wished us a good day.

We were now in Seoul, South Korea where we had a 3 hour layover.  Since we were only transferring to another plane we did not have to go through customs but we did have to go through security again.  This process took about 15 minutes.  On our way to the next gate we saw an interesting little ceremony taking place right there in the concourse.  According to the sign it was a “Reenactment of the Lives of Joseon Royal Court, Walk of the Royal Family”.  The participants were dressed in what we could only guess were traditional clothing.  We stopped and watched for a few minutes and took some pictures.

 

After watching this reenactment we were hungry.  We found the food court in the airport and had some Korean barbeque, which was much spicier than anything we’ve had at home.  Even the salad had spices on it.  We each ordered a different disk and a beer and took our time eating before heading for our gate.  The next flight was pretty much just as nice as the first except it was an hour and 50 minutes instead of 2 hours.  We finished watching the movie that we had started on the first flight and we had another small meal.  The flight was pretty empty and we had three seats for the two of us.  We arrived in Beijing Airport on time at 8 PM.  We cleared customs, immigration, grabbed our bag from the baggage carousel and exchanged money all in about 20 minutes. When we walked out into the concourse the driver which we had hired to take us to the hotel from the airport was waiting for us holding a sign with our names.  He drove us to the hotel where we arrived a little over a half hour later.

Lunch in Korea

Even though it was dark out our first impression of Beijing was that of a dirty city. There was smog everywhere and you really couldn’t see more than about a half mile in front of you. It seemed like fog but it smelled like burning coal. Everything was covered in grime. The drivers were chaotic. Using a turn signal was rare and it seemed that the only rules of the road were that if you had the bigger vehicle then you had the right away. The odd thing was that they pretty much drove speed limit though. When we got off of the expressway we learned that pedestrians are given zero respect. The next day we would learn this firsthand. If you are trying to cross a street you better watch out for the cars, trucks, bikes, motorcycles, busses and anything else that moves because it seems they are out to get you. Crosswalks are nothing but a waste of paint. If you are driving (foreigners are not allowed to drive in China we learned) and you want to get to the front of a line at a red light all you have to do is drive on the shoulder to the front of the line and cut the first car off. Then when the light turns green you’re first! If you want to be in the lane next to you and there is already a car there all you have to do is start drifting and they’ll move. Sometimes they beep but as long as you are bigger they move.

We got to our hotel and checked in. We were upgraded to a nicer room or so we were told. When we got to our room we found we had indeed been upgraded. We seem to have a suite with a bedroom, living room and 1 ½ baths. The view is nothing special, just an office building next to us but we do have lounge access which includes happy hour from 5:30 to 7:30 which includes free drinks, appetizers and desserts. We also have a free breakfast that is included. We hit the bed within an hour of arriving at the hotel since we had been travelling much of the day.



Our nice big room

Chinese money.  They sure love Mao.