September 3rd, 2016

Day 156: Beijing – Day 2

Now that we had several days in a big city, we decided to take care of some outstanding errands before we heading into the remote Western parts of China. We made a check-list of tasks to complete by the end of the day so we could spend the next 3 days sight-seeing. We had accumulated several pounds of excess weight in our bag (a few souvenirs, redundant electronic items, our scuba dive books and the zoom lens), which we wanted to ship back to the United States in order to lighten our load. Since Beijing is a MASSIVE city (with 22 million residents it is almost 3 times the size of NYC), we figured it wouldn’t be too hard to find a FedEx, or some other international shipper.

Yeah, not so easy. Google Maps (and everything Google-related) is blocked in China, so we couldn’t run a simple search on our phone. We asked our receptionist at the hotel, Andy, who did his best to help us track down addresses, but had never seen or heard of a FedEx / DHL / HotExpress / UPS store front. “There are lots of SF Express – they are very good!” A Chinese shipper might be fine for a Chinese resident, but if our package gets lost / damaged, we didn’t feel confident that an international call to the SF Express customer service line would result in successful tracking or reimbursement – not least because their staff probably doesn’t speak English (why would they?). The closest FedEx location seemed to be in the Chaoyang District, near an artsy neighborhood – Andy suggested we go there, as it would be a nice area to visit regardless. He called an Uber cab for us, and we took off.

The cab dropped us off at a hospital. We were super confused, and tried to use our Google Translate app (which Igor luckily had the foresight to download as an offline version before we left Dubai) to confirm the address with the driver. He insisted we were at the right location, so we got out and started wandering around the hospital complex. After a good hour, we gave up – FedEx may have an office or warehouse somewhere in Chaoyang, but not a store front. Instead, we found lunch and started walking south towards the Forbidden City.

 

WTF? We were looking for a FedEx store, not a hospital! After an hour of searching the building complex for a storefront, we gave up and found a pizza place for lunch

 

Artsy sculptures in the Beijing neighborhood of Chaoyang

As we were walking down the street, Igor noticed a camping store – hey! – maybe we could scratch-off item #2 on our list: buying a new backpack! While Lindsay still maintains that her duct-tape & stitch job would have lasted the rest of the trip, Igor insisted on a big, durable new backpack that we could abuse without worry. We found a strong Deuter bag with convenient zippers at the bottom for around USD$250, which was a fair price. We had to run to an ATM as the store owner didn’t take foreign credit cards (as we would soon discover, a recurring problem for us in China). When we asked her for a receipt, she started handwriting the name of her store and the price of the bag on a piece of paper…at least we think that’s what she wrote. As it was in Chinese, we couldn’t really tell. Not sure if Deuter will accept this as proof of purchase if we need to invoke the warranty…

 

Buying a new backpack in Beijing

 

Hopping on the Beijing Metro – another glittering and spotlessly clean subway system, just like Dubai

After dropping off our new bag at our hotel, we walked around the corner to the local train ticket office – we had 2 train trips planned during our trip, but foreigners aren’t allowed to buy tickets online, so we had to purchase them in person ASAP to make sure the good seats weren’t sold out. Despite the fact that the office’s sign was translated into English, the guy at the “TRAIN TICKET OFFICE” didn’t speak a word, nor did he seem very open to using our translator app.

According to the Lonely Planet, the train stations in major cities speak at least some English, so we hailed a taxi for the train station. English-speaking? Erm, yes and no. When we got to the ticket counter, we tried to ask the guy if he spoke English. He smiled nervously and called for one of his co-workers came out to try and serve as an interpreter. He didn’t speak much English either, but with the help of our translator app and another customer in line we eventually managed to book two sleeper seats on one leg of the journey, and 1^st class seats on another.

Buying train tickets at the Beijing North Railway Station

It was only an hour long walk back to the hotel, and we were feeling very pleased about our productive day (despite the FedEx failure), so we decide to head back on foot. Beijing can be very pretty in places, with several little gardens and canals here and there. As the sun set, we passed a TripAdvisor & TimeOut recommended Vietnamese restaurant, so we decided to stop for dinner at Little Saigon – YUM!

 

Walking along the pretty canals in Beijing

 

The weather in Beijing reminds us so much of New York, we feel like we are at home

 

Dinner at Little Saigon – a highly rated Vietnamese restaurant where everything on the menu looks good

 

Excited for a real dinner!

 

Vietnamese noodles and vegetarian curry – IT TASTES SO GOOD

 

Heading back to the hotel along the lit-up canals with full bellies, and in a good mood. Loving Beijing!