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April 1, 2013

Beijing and home

Filed under: Russia,Trips — pearsey @ 1:29 pm
Tags: Beijing, Beijing Olympic Precinct, beijing olympics, Birds Nest Stadium, Intrepid Travel, olympic precinct, trans mongolian railway, Trans Siberian, Trans Siberian Railway

Sunday I woke up, opened the curtains and nearly fell over. There was BLUE SKY!!!! BLUE SKY IN BEIJING!!! Almost unheard of! Ev and I spent this day out at the National Stadium – aka Birds Nest, the venue for the Beijing Olympics opening/closing ceremonies, athletics and soccer finals. Walked around the Olympic precinct there, it was extremely hot and humid in the morning, but still, with blue skies above, I wasn’t going to complain.

Birds Nest Stadium from the Olympic precinct

Took a tour inside the stadium, which is just like any other really (although I suspect the Chinese would not say that) and they had plenty of Olympic displays there, including highlights of the opening and closing ceremonies running on the big screen for the visitors to enjoy and a wax museum of Olympic presidents.

Inside the Birds Nest

Outside there was an honour roll of every Olympic medalist, including the Paralympians. Got the impression that the Beijing Olympics wasn’t just an “event” for China, but something that they have marked as a turning point in the history of their country.

Olympic Rings

The food court tent there was enormous, it must have been at least 100m long. The most interesting shop was one that sold insects on skewers. It had the most people gathered round it, but it wasn’t doing a roaring trade! Really enjoyed looking around the Olympic area anyway, definitely the highlight in Beijing for me.

More delicacies ready to eat

Sunday we went back to the Silk Market, but I didn’t really buy anything at all (two small things as a present). There were a lot more people than the day before and it almost seemed like the stall holders were intentionally trying not to sell anything – didn’t see many people buying at all. That night, my last in Beijing, a few of us headed to Ghost street. Heaps of lanterns on the street, it looked really good. Food was ok too and yep, big screens set up in and outside most of the shops with the Olympics playing! You could only imagine what it would have been like when Beijing actually had the Olympics there – the atmosphere would have been amazing.

Lanterns in Ghost Street

So Beijing – spent way too much time in McDonalds (the coffee lovers tell me they had good coffee there, plus they had the Olympics on the tv) and KFC. Beijing has improved a lot for visitors since I was there last (before the 2008 Olympics) and it’s still hazy, crowded, polluted but at least not as much spitting, smoking and it does seem a whole lot cleaner.

Olympics in McDonalds

Caught the shuttle bus out to the airport – we scoped out the departure point the night before and I can say that I’m glad we did. We had a bit of trouble finding it then, seemed like anybody with a scrap of english had left town and my chinese wasn’t quite up to scratch yet! We left with plenty of time to get to the airport and find where we had to go – which was a good thing, we went to 3 departure check in desks before we got the right one… That wasn’t really our fault, the helpful staff kept sending us to the wrong one. There’s not much to do at Beijing airport though, if you’re hoping to fill in a few hours browsing the shops before your flight, you may have a problem.

Flew out from Beijing to Guangzhou on an A380. That is a very nice plane. Managed to get a couple of bonus hours in the A380 – we got delayed in Beijing and spent 2 hours sitting on the tarmac after preparing for takeoff. The captain announced he was sorry for the delay – I reckon only 90 seconds later we were in the sky. No announcement, just bang, we were screaming down the runway and 10 seconds later off the ground. The poor hostess was delivering some water to the people in front of us and as soon as she felt the plane move she literally ran for her seat. By the time she got buckled in, I think we were off the ground! After the delay we got rushed through by the airline to make our connecting flight. We all got to the gate there and they said oh yeah, this plane’s been delayed as well, it’s not even here yet… Oh well, meant that our luggage made it to this next flight…

A380 ready for takeoff

The last leg of the journey home was uneventful. It ended with me doing some of the exercises that China Southern get their passengers to do when the plane’s not far off landing. It’s funny looking around seeing everybody doing their best to copy the people on the video.

Homeward Bound

And with touchdown at Melbourne, so ended a 7 and a half week odyssey and a journey of contrasts that took me from little villages in Uganda to little villages on the opposite side of the globe in Russia and Mongolia, a journey that saw me leave one continent to visit 3 others. I saw things and went to places that many people won’t get to see/visit in their lifetime. I canoed around one of the lakes in Uganda, saw hippos, crocs and elephants and then traveled the Trans Siberian/Trans Mongolian Railway line, one of the great railway journeys in the world. Some things are common to people around the world, regardless of where you are and that is people in 3 continents making the best of their life with all the hardships that go with it and without all the luxuries that are taken for granted in Australia.

For the record – I did the Intrepid Russia and Beyond trip, which I can’t link directly to as it seems they don’t do it anymore. They have similar trips, mine was an “original”, which means you have plenty of time to look around and do your own thing, but the benefit of having a guide around if you need it and your transport/accommodation organised for you (which is often just public transport with the locals).

Now, for those who are waiting, yes, now that I’ve finished the Russian section of my trip, I will get back and post some details of the Ugandan trip!