Transit in China

On my flight to the US, I had to transit at Beijing, China. What I thought was unfortune, is that I had to transit at Beijing and wait there for 12 hours until my next flight to Chicago, USA. My flight from Malaysia, would reach Beijing at about 5.30 am, and the next flight out to Chicago, was at 5.30 pm. So I thought, maybe I can walk around the airport to kill time. So the moment, I reach Beijing, I got a transit pass, and the Chinese immigrations issued me a one day visa. I did try to walk around in Beijing Airport. I walk around and tried the Starbucks....
However, at 7.30 am, I was already an expert around the Beijing airport.
I figured, I will die being in Beijing for the next 10 hours. So finally, I approach the help counter and ask, how do I get into the city. And the helpful lengloi told me that I can take the bas, and visit the forbidden city. Say what.....forbidden city....get me on the bas.

So I went a head and changed some US dollars to Yuen. Paid 16 Yuen for the bas ticket towards the city. Apparently, a lot of people in Beijing knows only very little or absolutely no english words. So while buying my ticket, I had to speak a little mandarin, which was also as bad as their English. At the ticket counter, I told them I wanted to go to Beijing City, and stop at the Forbidden City. They look at me blur, and responded with an annoyed tone, ni yao shenme. So I responded Wo yao qu Beijing City, Wo yao kan Forbidden City, which in English means I want to get to Beijing City, I want to City Forbidden City. Amazingly, they understood what I'm asking for and gave me a ticket. Happy me, I got on the bas with a little fear that I might get lost in Beijing city.



At first it was scary, cause nobody in the bas spoke english, and I don't know where to stop. So I waited until I saw a red building with people around it, which make me suspect that this is the forbidden city. I came down and started walking towards the forbidden city. The forbidden city is located at the Tiananmen Square. Rectangular in shape, it is the world's largest palace complex and covers 74 hectares. Surrounded by a six meter deep moat and a ten meter high wall are 9,999 buildings. It's amazing place to visit, unfortunately, a lot of the things here are in Mandarin. So I had to get a guide to show me around. Plus its a huge place, and one can get lost in the forbidden city.




There is a river running through the forbidden city. It was so cold during this time, and I am shivering. Luckily there was no strong winds in the forbidden city, however, it was cold enough to make the river frozen. There were 5 bridges crossing over this river and if you have seen some Wong Fei Hong movies, you'll notice that people will have to walk across the river to meet the emperor. Its amazing what the emperor built a long time ago and yet it is still admired till today.







Thats the forbidden city and the large court where a bunch of soldiers used to stand infront of the emperor. The women in pink is my guide. Well, I didn't really find a guy, I was hunted as a naive tourist. She came to me, and told me that I needed a guide. She tagged along with me until i gave up and let her be my tour guide. I should have known better, but I am an inexperience traveller. So I was cheated to pay a guide who was not so good in english and can hardly understand what I wanted to know about the city. Anyways, she managed to entertain me for maybe like 2 hours until we finally came out on the other side of the forbidden city. Outside the forbidden city, was another guy who spotted a naive tourist.



And again I got suckered into going on this ride through the hunan village. The hunan village is where the mongolian settlement used to be. Here I am taking a picture infront of a hunan style house. I was told that the status of one resident is by the size of the door. A bigger door would mean you are richer, and the smaller the door is, the poorer you are. I guess it is still the same here, if you have a gate like the Sultan's house, you are royalty. But it doesn't holds true if you are living in a expensive condominium in KL.....well, times has changed.

So finally it was already close to 2pm. I needed to go back before I miss my flight. Although my flight was at 5.30 pm. I'm taking no chances, I was afraid that I might get lost.



Indeed I got lost on the way back. The rickshaw guy drop me off without giving me any sufficient clues as to where to get the next bus shuttle to the airport. I tried, but either he pretended not to understand me, or just wanted more money from me. I walked around trying to find the shuttle bus stop to the airport. But after half an hour talking to people who didn't understand me, I gave up and took the cab. It cost me 75 yuan. I didn't know the word for airport in mandarin. But luckily i got a picture of the airport. So I just showed the cab driver the picture, and told him, wo yao qu zheli (i want to go here).....showing the picture. Finally arrived at the airport and just in time to get on my flight with United Air, leaving Beijing, China to Chicago, US. What a fortunate turn of events. And an adventurous one.:)