One Night in Beijing

The incident of MH370 never stop my plan to visit Beijing, China.

 

I was having a business trip to China for the second time in three months. This time, for a week.
The plan is fly to Beijing, stay for a night and then take a train down to Shanghai.

My mate is suggesting me to take a train for two reasons:

1. For the sake of the experience of China fastest train (They called it the G code Train) - which literally means any kind of train that starts with the "G" code would be the fastest train in China.

2. China airlines can be crappy at times. Old seats, cramped with people. Oh ya, and I hated turbulence too.

I took some time off after my meeting for my usual activities - Touring around.

The "Tiananmen" - one of the great monument that you shouldn't missed during your stay in Beijing.
Constructed during the Ming dynasty, it was once the main entrance to the "Forbidden City".

But funnily enough, it was not the monument that impressed me.

It was this instead.

One I would classified as "a cute police vehicle".

Wouldn't have imagine that what would they put on a police car in Malaysia. Najib picture with his kitten could be the best bet.

A few more pictures.

As it was raining, I decided to move on.

Remember there's once the Olympic games was held in Beijing in the year of 2008?

 

 

I was thrilled when upon check in to the hotel, I was informed that my hotel was actually walking distance away from the Bird Nest - the Beijing Olympic Stadium.

 

And yes, of course, I made my way there.

But the sad thing is when you are travelling alone, you have no one to rely on taking photographs of yourself.

 

And I must admit that I am really poor at taking a selfie.

 

So I took this photo of my cock instead.

 



Sorry. My Coke, Coke bottle.

And of course, not forgetting the Beijing Aquatic Centre. Where Michael Phelps, the American swimmer won the whopping 8 gold medals and make a name of himself.

And of course, he told us all he had was luck and perseverance.

 

 

Ok.

 

The attention to details by the Chinese is so great, that even the lamps around the stadium was constructed like a Bird Nest.

 

 

Then suddenly I saw this.

 

Honestly, I really thought when people mentioned to me about the train to Beijing, they were talking about this train.

No way.

It would take me days or even months to reach Shanghai.

If you have followed my blog, you would noticed that I will almost never failed tell you guys where I have stayed and the price for the reference.

For this trip to Beijing, since it was a last minute arrangement, I just settled in to the Beijing Grand Continental Hotel. (5 minutes walk from the Olympic stadium, half and hour from airport).

The cost of the room? Approx. 800 Yuan (MYR 400) per night of stay.

Room is good, staffs are friendly, but communication in English can be handy at times.

Last but not least, for those of you who have never travel to China, I have an advice for you.

Always try to get your destination or places to go translated in mandarin prior to your trip. Without doing this, you could pretty much ended up in all the wrong places.

Do not underestimate this, this will really help a lot in term of saving your times and money.

Secondly, bring your international travel plug adaptor.

Some hotel do provide the international type of socket, but mostly wouldn't have one. Unless you are staying at a high class hotel like Holiday Inn in Shanghai, which I will cover more in my next post - One of the coolest hotel I have stayed in my life.

I will write more on my journey to Shanghai in the next post.

Stay tuned.