Cathay Part 2 - Tours for the Tourists

For me, the most jaw dropping place in Beijing was Tiananmen Square. You must see it with your own eyes to appreciate the size and scope of the place. The Great Wall of China was very impressive but, in one important way, there is no comparison between the two. Tiananmen Square is enormous, alive and reflects today’s China. A city square on steroids. It is so big that it can hold over 500,000 people at one time, just imagine that. On a weekday in April tens of thousands of people, many from interior China, line up to visit Mao’s tomb. The adjacent Forbitten City is like a set from a movie, but the size of a city. It’s a city within a city, like a maze. Our guide described the complex design: once someone got in there was no easy way to get out (especially for a concubine). The three pictures below of three places we visited are a summary just in case you don’t have time to read the rest of the blog.  

Tours for the Tourists

Our busy first day in Beijing. Our group’s agenda: Meet and introduce each other, visit two UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall. Then stops at a jade art and jewelry factory, lunch at a small local restaurant, and our welcome dinner. After breakfast we met and introduced ourselves and got assigned seats on the bus for the day. The seat assignments change every day, designed to give all 37 of us a chance to a good spot on the tour bus. The idea of seat assignments made me laugh to myself at first, but later I discovered our guide knew exactly what he was doing. It appeared some people in our group did not understand the logistic of the seating at first, but after a few minutes everyone was settled in and ready to see the City.  Once again we were little kids on a school field trip.  

We were in heavy traffic trying to get on the outskirts of Beijing, about 26 mile north-northeast of Beijing to the Ming Tombs. While we were going about 5 mile per hour tour guide Andy pointed out and explained to us the Beijing city wall around old Beijing as the bus slowly passed it. But it seemed we were more amazed by the 5 lanes of treelined, lanscaped highway and the high-rise buildings in the distance. Andy explained that once we get to the outer “ring” of Beijing, the traffic will not be as congested. 

Beijing has 5 ring highways, what we call beltways. Not until Bob looked at his iPhone with the newly activated sim card (using Apple maps) could we see the enormity of the highway system. Beijing’s 5 beltways accommodate its 24 million citizens. Even though there’s a subway and train system, lots want to drive. But even if one owns a car, on certain days, one cannot drive it within certain ring roads. There are odd and even day license plate restrictions. Licenses are expensive, registration is expensive, and families within certain limits are limited to one car. All this to help with the traffic and air pollution. We’re at the blue dot on the picture below, the yellow inner rings are visible, the green rings are the outer beltways.

Along the way the roads were smooth, well paved and lined with trees (forests really) planted on both sides to help with the smog. But solving one problem created another problem for the people of Beijing. There is a lot of tree pollen to deal with in the spring, summer, and fall seasons.

We got to the Ming Tomb around 9am and the first thing we all needed was the restroom or the “happy room.” After our guide got tickets and entered the gate, and the happy room was just a short walk away. I learned later that toilet papers is a luxury in some places we visited in China. I thought of all the rolls of toilet papers I bought at Costco for $15.99 and wished I packed one roll in my backpack. Good thing some ladies in our group planned ahead and shared! 

So what are the Ming tombs? The Ming tombs are a collection of mausoleums, a cemetery. This cemetery is world famous because of its thirteen emperor burial sites. The tomb cluster of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), sitting at the foot of Mt. Yan and occupying an area of more than 120 square kilometers (29,653 acres), is spectacular. It was listed as a World Heritage site in 2003. The whole area is park-like, a beautiful layout with gardens and granite figures.

After an hour we walked from one end of the park to the other, about 2 miles. The flowers were blooming and the place was just beautiful and interesting. 

Our next stop was the jade factory where they have a western-style happy room and free “fire water” for all of us to sample. The jade factory is a retail store that hosts busloads of tourists. The store was designed to show and tell about all thing jade, jade carving, and, of course, to sell. The place was so big that they have one building for foreigners and one building for the local tourists. The first thing I did was to skip the introduction and head straight for the happy room. When I came out our group was disbursed to different counters to shop for that perfect jade trinket. Bob was outside the store talking to the part of our group that had no interested in buying or looking at jade. He was probably boasting to others that I’m too practical to buy any knick-knacks, but then I came out smiling with the little jade pig around my neck. Oops, someone spoke too soon.

Next it was lunch time and we were heading to a local restaurant. There were four big tables waiting for 37 of us. The 14 items were delicious with great flavor, all family style. Andy explained to us what we were eating as each dish was being served. He explained Beijing style cuisine. People at our table loved the hot and spicy dishes, the veggie dishes remained half full while all the pork, chicken, beef and fish dishes were gone quickly as the lazy susan spun. My favorite dish was lotus with tofu. And there was local Beijing beer, a light lager style, 3% ABV!

After lunch we were back on the bus and headed for the Great Wall of China, another UNESCO World Heritage Site. On the way, while Andy explained the roads, the culture, the Olympic village, I began to dose off and I believed half of the people on the bus did the same thing. Too much lunch. Andy explained about the Great Wall and asking us if we knew how long and how old the wall is. Some shouted out the length of the wall then I started to see the wall out the window. My heart skipped a beat at the sight of it spiraling up the mountainsides. Who would have thought that one day I will walk on the Great Wall of China? As we got closer to the wall, Andy recommended all of us hike to the right because of the gentler slope up the hill, the left side of the wall being very steep and hard to climb. I looked at Bob and I knew we we’re hiking to the left, almost strait up.

As we walked up the stairs of the Great Wall, the steps were not even. Bob and I climbed up the steps and because each step was different it almost camouflaged where your foot would land. We climbed for about 45 minutes and the view was amazing. The sky was clear this day and we could see down the valley into the edge of Beijing City. Climbing was not easy, and going back down was harder. At a few places we had to turn around and step down backwards. 

On the way back into Beijing we did a quick stop that the Olympic Village. I immediately remembered the Birds Nest Stadium and adjacent Ice Cube Stadium. We ended the day with dinner at another local restaurant.

Day two: Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and Beijing’s famous Peking Duck. 

When our bus approached the edge of Tiananmen Square Andy explained to us that it will be crowded with people and the bus could only stop for few minutes, therefore we need to get off the bus as soon as possible (I learned later many other tour buses let people off a few miles from the square). As we followed Andy through a tunnel to get to the square, it got crowded, and, as I emerged on the edge of the square, I have never seen so many people in one place. Even though there were lots of people, I didn’t feel like I was being crushed or pushed by the crowd. Everyone was moving slowly, respectfully in the same direction.

When we were on the Square the second thing I noticed was that famous picture of Mao on a gate in the distance. 

In one direction there was a gigantic long line of people patiently waiting to see Mao’s Tomb. In another direction there were several long lines of people heading to the Forbidden City. And there were masses milling about the middle of the square. We were headed for one of the lines walking toward Mao’s picture. There were local police, military and plain clothes security everywhere. As we waited for the rest to catch up, Andy asked us with a smile if we know knew how many security cameras were on the light post? We all looked at the light pole and saw cameras as if they were berries on a branch. 

Security cameras on every light post

 As we got closer the Forbidden City the big famous picture of Mao that we saw on Life magazine, on Time magazine, on Newsweek magazine, and other news magazines was right in front of us, growing bigger. One man in a dark trench coat casually walking toward then along our group holding an Ipad like device pointed at our faces. He was talking our picture. We speculated later that he was using face recognition to scan our group. It looked like this was happening to every line lining up to enter the Forbidden City.

Forbidden City Entrance

Inside the Forbidden City I felt like I was in a movie. The square inside the city was almost as big as the one outside (Tiananmen). The royal palace has a gold roof, red stone and lots of carved dragon and lion decorations. It was like a maze. Hundreds of buildings and internal squares and gardens. We visited the concubine’s section of the palace and it was like another city tucked inside of another city. Lots of walking, lots of history. Andy did a great job of narrating. After a while we wandered out the other side’s grand gates and there was our bus.

Inside Forbidden City

Next we visited Summer Palace, a park-like place on an enormous lake built for the royals to escape the heat in Beijing. The origins of the Summer Palace date back to the Jin dynasty in 1153. But it was the Quin dynasty that built the imperial gardens between 1750 -1760. In December 1998, UNESCO added the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List. Another amazing place, more walking, more history.

Inside Summer Palace 

Then, believe it or not, we actually visited Beijing Zoo! Yes, we visited the zoo to look at the pandas. We only went to the large and famous Beijing Panda exhibit, the rest of the zoo would take an entire day. We ended the day with having Peking Duck for dinner at an somewhat ornate restaurant and all you could drink beer and fire water. The fire water was a strong rice wine, as best I could tell. We stuck to ultra-low alcohol Chinese beer. Bottoms up!

Afternoon at the Zoo 

Day three: Visiting Old Beijing and the Bell Tower

We visited old Beijing town, the Hutong area. About 20 of us went on this tour, some in the group elected to go shopping or wandering around near our hotel. The Hutongs are located in the center of Beijing and closed to the Forbitten City. The Hutongs are a type of narrow alley formed by the traditional courtyard residences. This preserved area of Beijing is in stark contrast to the rest of the very modern city. Currently, many of the hutongs have been designated as protected to preserve this aspect of Chinese cultural history. 

Tour of Hutong (Old Beijing)

We rode a rickshaw through the narrow allies and most of the houses were obviously old but not without charm. We visited a family in the middle of the area. They showed us their home and how it now has modern amenities. Close to downtown, the homes are now very valuable. It is quite strange to see brand new BMWs and Mercedes carefully parked outside the old houses and in the narrow alleys. Lots of bicycles and electric scooters too. 

Not far away was the old public time keeping tower. Our guide called it Beijing’s Big Ben. We climbed the narrow steps to the top of the ancient Drum Tower and at 10:30 a group of 5 drummers came out and pounded the very large drums. The Drum Tower was built in 1272. Bells and drums were musical instruments used in ancient China. Later they were used by government and communities to announce the time. Over time the Drum Tower was replaced by a Bell Tower and now it is a museum. The sound would echo out over the neighborhoods. At the base of the Drum Tower, a park, locals were playing hack sack in a large circle. They were good!

That wrapped up the three days in Beijing. We visited the oldest cemetery, the oldest wall, the oldest palace, the oldest alleys, the lazy pandas, ate a lot of great food, and drove by a place where Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps broke records. But the most significant site to me was Tiananmen Square. Where 500,000 people can gather every day to view the tomb of a dead leader in orderly lines, no shoving, no complaining, no protesting.

Stay tune for Part 3 - The Yangtze River, China new revolution - the Toilet Revolution

Cathay 2019 - Part 1 Flights and Currency Exchange

We left Sacramento on an early Southwest Airlines flight to Los Angeles Airport. Smooth start, even with less than 6 hours of sleep. We were ready and excited to travel to China. The flight on Southwest Airlines was fantastic. We got great seats in the exit row and the flight attendant gave us 5 star service, pretzels and drinks and extra bags of pretzels.

Southwest Airline flight attendant Ellen, is based in Dallas, Texas

We landed at LAX Terminal 1 and walked to the international terminal to board Air China. Good thing that we did because for the first time we actually walked very close to the LAX landmark Theme Building, a Space Age structure that we’ve seen in movies since the 70s. It still looks nice but no longer looks like the future. Still don’t know what’s in there.  

Theme Building at LAX

Once inside the newish Tom Bradley International Terminal, we went to the money exchange booth and exchanged all of our US dollars for Chinese currency, the yuan. We usually don’t carry cash but we had $190 dollars between us and I wanted it all in yuan. The man behind the glass said something through the thick window and counted 1,025 yuan and gave me back few a few US coins. I went back to where we were sitting and showed the new currency to my husband and started to divide the money between us. My husband kept saying to me there should be 7 100 yuan notes. I counted the bills again and said there are ten 100 yuan, one 20 yuan and one 5 yuan. I get to keep more since I was the one that would be doing all the shopping for us. Then I gave him two 100 yuan bills. I had no idea why he kept saying 7. Turns out he was trying to do the currency exchange math in his head, and completely failing. Time for more coffee.

Same plane that landed from Beijing.  

Boeing 777-300ER

We boarded an Air China 777 and our seats were exactly what we selected, middle and aisle seats. After we took off I had a hard time using the console for movies since the screen’s touch controls were worn from other passengers over the years. So I had to use the buttons on the armrest. Two hours into our flight my husband said we are flying over Alaska. I told my husband I miss Singapore Airlines and their super friendly flight attendants. 

Flying over Alaska

Eight hours later flying over Russia

When drinks were being served, I asked if I could have a glass of white wine. The Air China flight attendant said it will be served with the meal. So, I settled for water. I leaned over and whispered in my husband’s ear how much I miss Singapore Airline for the second time. He whispered back that we have to experience other airlines so I can write about the experience. I told my husband I miss the big Singapore Airbus A380. Then my husband went on talking about the Boeing 777-300ER we were in, how it has the best fuel efficiency and how it can fly long range around the world. He continued with his plane talk and I could only see his mouth moving, not understanding one word. Too bad the Beijing Airport doesn’t have a “fuel efficiency” plane-pool fast lane during rush hour (that story will be explained on my last part of China).

When we landed in Beijing I was tired and excited at the same time. The Beijing airport is big, new, very efficient and easy to navigate from the gate to the immigration and baggage claim. The airport appears to be able to handle more than 20 international planes arriving at the same time. There were many counters and machines for fingerprints to enter the country, the assistants all speak English and other languages. The line for visitors to China was long but it took us less than 20 minutes for face pictures, finger prints, visa check, stamping of passports, then we were welcomed into China. The dreadful 2 days of waiting to get a Chinese Visa at the San Francisco Consulate back in February is starting to fade away. 

After we got our super light and small bags (compared to everyone else’s) we exited the airport baggage claim area and entered the airport lobby. I could not believe how nice and modern it looked. I spotted a Starbucks right away on my right where there was a long line. We found our tour guide Andy from Gate 1 Travel and he checked our names and asked us to wait for the rest of the group to come out from the immigration and baggage claim.  

I looked around and was ready to use my yuan. I went into a store and bought two bottles of water for 12 yuan (about $1.80). 

By the time the rest of our group were altogether, 37 of us from America, our tour guide lead us out of the airport terminal and into the bus waiting area. Andy explained to us that our suitcases will be loaded in a different van and we will board the bus with our carry-on bags. The porters struggled to load the big bags into the van and one big, strong guy in our group jumped in to help, power loading the entire van in seconds. (This was Colin, a great guy from New Jersey who we’d get to know later.) The porters looked on in amazement. 

On the way to our hotel, The DoubleTree Hotel in Beijing, Andy explained that we are in rush hour and it will take approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes. It was around 8:00pm on Sunday night in Beijing and the traffic was just like San Francisco on a week day between 3pm and 7pm. Yikes.

Our luggage was at the hotel when our bus arrived. By the time we were all checked in our room it was after 9:30pm. We were tired and dazed. 

This is the view from our hotel at midnight

This is our view of Beijing from the window of our hotel the next morning around 5am.

Beijing sunrise

Our room had two single beds, as they all did we later found out. We joked that these were the China one child policy hotel rooms. 

Of course I woke up at 5am Monday morning, Beijing time, and that’s 1pm on Sunday afternoon in California,15 hours different. 

I loved the breakfast buffet at the hotel. Needless to say, they had cereals, eggs, bacon, and all those things you can find at any breakfast place in America. But I saw foods that I haven’t seen since I left Saigon in 1975 when I was 15 years old. There were baos, pickled asian radish, and stuff that looked strange but I ate anyway, and it was good. There were 4 different rice porridges, steamed fish, steamed meats, moon cakes, many Chinese pastries like the ones we loved in Hong Kong and lots of tropical fruits. Even a wonton soup station, freshly made, with lots of fresh herbs. We never touched the American style stuff.

Our first sightseeing trip was to the Ming Tombs from the Ming dynasty. The Site is located within the suburban Changping District of Beijing Municipality, 26 miles north-northwest of Beijing city center. 

On the way, Andy explained to us the traffic in Beijing is very bad but that Beijing has a good public transportation system and the trains run every few minutes to accommodate over 23 million people in the city. But you are sardined into the trains at peak times. Andy explained that even if a citizen has a car, they can’t drive it on certain day of the week, depending on license plate number. The city has rules that prevent total gridlock, and getting a driver’s license, a license plate, and buying a car are long and expensive processes. 

Stay tune for Part 2 - Tours for the Tourists

The Ming Tombs, The Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, Forbitten City, Lazy Panda, Summer Palace, Old Beijing and Bell Tower.

Only Two Windows - Our first step to Cathay

We left Sacramento around 7am and hit no traffic into San Francisco. Most people were probably out of the city for the long President’s Day weekend. The Chinese Consulate’s office is located on the corner of Laguna and Geary Street. We found the Consulate building and were pleased that we got there just as they opened. But when we turned onto Geary Street we saw an enormous line of people waiting to get inside the Chinese Consulate’s visa office. 

The waiting line to get inside the Visa Consulate 

The line was long and wrapped around the building. My husband took one look and said he's not going to wait in that line! It wrapped down the street and around the corner. But we parked the car and walked up the hill and got in line anyway. I looked at my watch and it was 9:05, the consulate just opened for business 5 minutes earlier. We were on the East side of the building and the morning sun was keeping us warm. There were at least 150 people in front of us. Soon more people lined up behind us as we moved about 6 inches forward in the first 30 minutes. I told my husband that I'll go and get us some coffee. I got out of line and started to look for a Starbucks on Fillmore Street.

My Apple map shows about 4 tenths of a mile to the nearest Starbucks, or an 8 minutes walk. I followed the directions and walked faster to beat the very cold air. At Starbucks I ordered two coffees and used the restroom. I walked back, worrying that I was gone too long. No problem. The line was even longer behind us and my husband had moved forward about 4 feet.

I started to make conversation with the young college-age man behind me. Turns out he’s a freshman at UC Berkeley and was using his day off to get his China Visa for a trip this summer. In front of me, a young lady and her dad were here for their visas too. They came all the way from Shasta the night before and stayed at one of the hotels so they could be first in line at 9am. But they didn’t know many would line up even earlier.

My husband googled his surroundings and let me know that there are little shops in Japan Town that looked interesting if I wanted to check them out. Once again I left the line and walked toward Japan Town. I went in several stores in Japan Town, just about a block from the visa waiting line. I stopped and tasted mochi, then bought some bread and pastries. Walking back I saw my husband at the same spot when I left 30 minutes ago. We munched on the pastries and I asked my husband to go and move the car since we parked at a 2 hour time limited parking spot on the street.

He left to check on the car. The line moved a little and I made a comment to the young man that we are making progress, a few more feet and we will move past the corner and head for the straight line on Geary Street.  At 11:36 I got a text from hubby asking if I would like a cup of coffee. “No thank you” I responded. We inched up little by little. At almost 3 hours the young lady and her dad from Shasta decided they couldn’t wait anymore and they left. We took their spot and moved up a foot. My husband came back with coffee in his hand and said the car is fine. I left the line and went up to the entrance of the building and asked the guard at the door if we need to come back because the visa issue hours are 9:00am - 2:30pm. He said don’t worry, we'll get in. It was 11:50am.

Office Hour

I came back to the line and told my husband and the college kid the good news. I noticed we were still in the same spot. About 30 minutes later another guard coming down the line asking people if they were in line for a visa? We said yes and he handed out a number, A079. He asked the college kid and also handed the kid a ticket. Now that we had the ticket, I guess we can leave and come back? But the other people who got tickets didn’t leave. And the entrance was still very far away.

I left the line and went to ask the guard how I'll know when my number is called? He looked at my number and looked inside, and explained to me that right now the number is 30. Go back in line or come back at 1:30. I walked back to the line, by now the husband had moved about six inches. Around 1pm, the same guard walked down the sidewalk line and asked those here for a visa to stay in one line closer to the building and those here for “documents” to stay in a different line closer to the curb. There was some shuffling. Now there were two lines and we moved up quite a bit closer to the entrance of the building. By 1:00 pm the guard that was handing out visa number tickets now started to hand out a different ticket to the people who waiting in line for “documents”.

Since we got our ticket and were waiting to be called I started to get out of line more often. I could see a third line formed opposite from our line, down the sidewalk in the other direction. Someone told me that line is the appointment line. Then we froze. From 1:00pm to 2:50pm we were in the same spot. I got out of line and asked the guard again and explained to him that I can’t hear my number and asked if I missed the call? He said they haven’t got to my number yet.

People moved around and some were hanging out at the front of the entrance, crowding the front. The bigger guard, more like a club bouncer in uniform, started to asked people to stand back. He started to move the barrier in front of the entrance and he put down red tape on the sidewalk and told people to stand behind the tape. He also let more people in the document line to get inside while the visa line hadn’t moved an inch for over an hour. Finally he let three people in the visa line enter the building. It was a big deal. I was so excited because we were next to get in.

We are next to get inside the building

Minutes later, the overworked but friendly bouncer waved us in and we went through a metal detector.

The time we were inside the building

Once inside I saw it was a single large room. There were dozens of people sitting on the airport-like chairs, and many people were filling out forms. Toward the back I saw about 10 windows, some with lines. Clerks behind glass were scrambling. I had no clue which window to go toward or which line to wait in. I went back and asked the door guard which window.  He looked at my ticket and pointed to the window 8 and 9 and said one of those two. Then I realized there were only two windows processing the visas and that they are working on numbers A073 and A074.   

Which window?

Number A079 is next 

30 minutes later our number finally lit up.  The lady behind the glass asked to see our application, driver license and passport. She went over the two applications very carefully and then asked, through a ticket booth style speaker,  if we had a photo copy of our passports and driver licenses. We said no and she returned everything to us under the glass window partition and told us to make copies of our passports and driver licenses and come back to the window. The Consulate’s website has instructions on the visa application, but never mentions bring photocopies of your passport and drivers license. Oh well.

We hurried to the copy machines we saw at the back of the crowded room, dug out quarters, loaned out a few to other who brought no cash, and the machine we picked didn’t work. So we waited in line to use the one working copy machine and I could feel the anxiety starting to get to me. After the copies of passports and driver licenses were done, we came back to the now busy window and waited again.

Finally a gap. We slipped up to the window and it took the lady about 5 minutes to carefully review all the documents, checking dates, flight information, addresses, etc. She handed us a receipt, keeping our passports and applications, and told us to come back on Friday to pick up the visa. And that was it! We walked out of the building by 3:50pm. A total of 6 hours and 30 minutes of waiting to get inside the building, and about 45 minutes once inside.

Our receipt

As we left the building I was so happy because we could come back on Friday and our visa will be ready.

On Friday we took our time to come in the city to get our Visa. I was confident that we wouldn't have to wait. But there was a line, a long line like on Monday. But I knew we didn’t have to wait in that line. With a confident posture I walked straight in the door and the same guard stopped me. I showed him my receipt for picking up our passport. He didn’t even look at the receipt but pointed at the line outside and told me to get in line. I looked at the people in line and saw that smirk that says get in line sista, we're here to pick up our visa too.

Friday line is now the pick up our Visa line

This time it took only two hours. Once inside we got our Visa we paid $140 each for a total of $280.  We are ready for Cathay.

Expensive 10 year visa

But the big Friday surprise was the extra ticket, a parking ticket. The signs say 2 hour parking, not two hours and 5 minutes. There goes my happy hour fund.

San Francisco parking ticket