Rise and shine at 5 a.m. - love these early morning plane connections. Pack and clean the suite and everything in its place. Gary drives us to the airport and we cleared security with only a minor problem and question about my glucose monitor. It's pouring rain today, the worst we've seen since leaving home, but it is warm. Today, Beijing is supposed to be sunny and +30. We arrive at noon, so we will have time to explore the area around our hotel while we wait for the other team members to arrive on Saturday. We need to go back to the airport to meet up with them and get on the same bus to our main hotel for the duration of our stay in Beijing. So what does the day hold? Our first day in mainland China.
’t even know where the hotel was. I noticed $16 charges for other shuttle services and smelled a scam. He insisted on taking us and on my refusal, he kept dropping the price by $50 each time. Down to $250 as we are walking away to find the cell phone store. I would rather call the hotel about a legit shuttle service.
A 50 minute delay in departure due to the pouring rain, but we land in Beijing International Airport to warm, sunny weather. We take a subway to baggage claim and the luggage gets there before we do, the fastest luggage transfer I have ever seen! No problems at immigration! The problems came with ground transportation. No shuttle to the hotel. Oh, well, we will get off on the right foot and get our communication gear upgraded. Before I could even find a cell phone outlet to get a SIM card, a man came and offered to take us by private car to our hotel for $500CYN! (About C$80) He didn
’t cost more than $100 for a 35 minute taxi ride to the hotel. “Just go to Level B1 and get a Capital Airport taxi.” Away we went to find a Disneyland style queue where the front of the line gets the next taxi. Eventually, we got to the front and a fellow with a van trundles over and offers us a ride to the hotel for $500! I refuse! That’s more than the cost for one night in the 4-star hotel where we are booked. He came down to $400 as I walked away. I went back and talked to the queue monitor who called another cab driver. Same scenario and I refused to pay what he was asking. Finally, I discovered that there were also taxis who would run “on the meter” which would be about U$15 or about $100CYN. Bingo! We took it. 35 minutes later, after congested 4-5 lane stop-and-go traffic, we were at the Holiday Inn Express. The taxi fare printed out at $44 plus a $3 fuel surcharge. I gave the driver a $50 note plus U$5 as a tip, which I had just received in change from the cell phone store. The driver understood NO English and began shouting something at me. I thought I had not paid him enough judging by my experience at the airport and asked if he needed more. A lady bystander came along who could speak a little English and talked to the driver. Finally, I grabbed all the money out of his hand and gave him $100 and motioned for him to go. He gave me the exact change back of $53, still yelling! I returned the change and motioned for him to get moving! After he had driven off, the lady bystander explained that we are not supposed to “help” them. He wasn’t even Chinese for that matter, one of the many migrant workers in China. Generosity is not a word in the local vocabulary.
Got the SIM card and asked a few questions at the courtesy counter and they thought it shouldn
’t know. We carried on and about 10 minutes later these same girls caught up to us and said they had found a hair salon and would be happy to take us there! They even offered to come in and interpret to the staff for us. One girl has been to Niagara Falls and the other is going to go to University in New York in the fall. We thanked them for their help and entered the salon. Mostly young, male yuppees, and we had about 8 of them flock to the front and want to do the haircut. Only Matthew wanted a haircut so when they pointed to a pricing chart, we chose $48 (about $8 Can.). The fellows in the green shirts did the washing, shampooing and wiping away the hair when the white-shirted scissor-men were finished. What these guys can do with scissors is amazing! An hour later after a wash and a shampoo, head massage and rinse, clipped hair, another wash and dry, and styling with gel, Matthew is beaming with a style like none other. Time to pay. I am shown a card with VIP on it and charged $26. \No, no, the agreed price was $48. I give him a $50 bill. Change is made out and I want to leave him a tip. He refuses, so I hand each of the 4 young men standing there a $1 bill. I mean, at least it pays for the complimentary coffee. Tipping is a hassle in these parts. I must find out about that. It seems ‘free enterprise’ is alive and well (at the airport, anyway), but tipping for excellent service is another thing.
The haircut:
After settling in to our hotel room, Matthew and I toured a few city blocks around our hotel, got a bite to eat at a Burger King and wandered around the local shops. We were looking for a place to get a haircut but all the signs are in Mandarin and the only English seems to be name brands. We asked a couple of university-age girls if they knew where we could get a haircut. They spoke some English and said they didn
’s Pharmacy. Matthew needed hair gel. The only way to communicate with the staff was by charades. English was of NO value! Tried my Blackberry translator, but no service underground! Before long we had half a dozen staff around us as I made the motion and sound of squirting gel into my hand, rubbing my hands together and slicking back my hair. Everyone laughing, we traipsed over to the hair gel section. Well…then it came time to pay! $34. I saw it when we picked up the gel. But I want to learn a Mandarin phrase for “How much does it cost? “ The clerk said what I think was $34 in Mandarin. Yes, yes. How do I say it in Mandarin, “How much?” $34. Now there are more than 6 clerks, all jabbering at once and laughing, almost falling on the floor. The supervisor comes and crossly jabs the one girl who is almost hysterical with laughter and I ask her, “How do I say in Mandarin, ‘How much?” I know it’s $34. I pay $34the for the gel and put up a number of nearby items on the counter and ask, “How much?” It was to no avail. We left behind a bunch of giggling girls and supervisors who still don’t know I was trying to learn the language…so, “if I can bring a little bit of happiness into someone’s life, my life will have been worth living.” (Red Skelton)’s it for one day, I'd think....
We continued our tour, crossing busy streets, never even getting run over by a bus. We found a mall under our hotel with a grocery store bigger than any Superstore, all kinds of shops with fancy stuff and a Watson
A tour through the supermarket, buy a little fruit, look at the variety of fish and meats and pastries, get a slushy and head for the room. That
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