Day 1: Beijing trip


Beijing trip: Thursday to Saturday


Thursday : 0700 hrs


Start for shanghai south railway station amidst much maara maari. Wife and I, true to our splendid form throughout on this trip were up and ready on time. Spirits were high as we were going to travel in the bullet train for the first time in our life.



The station was magnificent and needless to mention spotlessly clean. Giant tv screens almost 14 feet high were brightening the station. However the program language remained Chinese (mandarin) and so were the announcements and trains schedules.



Reached Beijing 1330 hrs



Cherry was our guide for Beijing. Actually we hadn't asked for one since Bil is well versed with the city. But now that she was here, Bill wasn't complaining as she was easy on eyes. It turned out later that she more of an liability for us.



How the guide system works is like this: the guides are only people you find speaking English. So tourists take them. But the guide.s real interest is in taking you to some silk outlets(which they cleverly call silk museum).



There they will convince /cajole/ inveigle tourists to buy overpriced stuff they probably don't need. Bill was aware of the tricks and so despite cherry "suggesting" many times that we start the tour with "museums" we stuck to our plans and started for summer palace.



We did manage to saved our time and money but had to waste time walking to reach our car. Cherry innocently pretended that due to parking etc issues we will have to walk back to the main gate. The vixen had deliberately done that to get even for us foiling her shopping plans. Walking was ok with us except for poor mother in law. The dear old lady had a bad case of arthritis and was in considerable difficulty. We dumped cherry right after we reached our hotel that night itself.



Beijing is at stark contrast to shanghai. The buildings here are more squares and rectangles, not very tall but stocky and sturdy looking. The taxis are not gleaming Volkswagens like in shanghai but more rugged Toyotas. The city is huge and hardly anyone you will meet who speaks English. This is a major impediment for most foreigners visiting China.



Reached our hotel anzen plaza at 10 and fell asleep the moment we hit the bed.


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