Hong Kong to Beijing

[PaulMCO]

Try 1985 :D

At that time there was NOTHING in Pudong across the river but a few shabby little warehouses along the river bank -no buildings of any kind, never mind skyscrapers. Nobody even went to the other side. Millions of bicycles and very few cars.

No fuss - thank you for taking the time for this excellent travel report. We will be visiting that area next year and I am taking notes.

 

 

Got you beat try that in 1979 :D

The best hotel was the Shanghai Mansion -- and it was no mansion.

No western hotels. And yes the bicycles... A sea of them...

Flying in from Japan into old Hongqiao airport on a Russian IL-62 jet -- those were the good days when China was not Commercial.

Went from there to Beijing. Saw the Great Wall and there was one small tourist shop and the place was empty...

Edited April 11, 2015 by PaulMCO

[Pet Nit Noy]

We went to Suzhou... silk factory... we were into the duvet/comforter shop... We were excellent consumers here and we all ended up purchasing comforters knowing that we had the real thing and not imitation.

 

We bought our silk duvets in Suzhou in 2002. They're going strong and still providing lightweight warmth thirteen years later. We bought both a light- weight and a mid-weight version. Part of the factory's packing process included vacuuming out all the excess air. As a result, many people in our group could fit their purchase inside their suitcases. Our king-sized duvet could not fit in our suitcases, but that was all right. By the end of our trip, we had bought enough stuff that we had to buy an additional suitcase in Hong Kong.

[no fuss travel]

Got you beat try that in 1979 :D

The best hotel was the Shanghai Mansion -- and it was no mansion.

No western hotels. And yes the bicycles... A sea of them...

Flying in from Japan into old Hongqiao airport on a Russian IL-62 jet -- those were the good days when China was not Commercial.

Went from there to Beijing. Saw the Great Wall and there was one small tourist shop and the place was empty...

 

We went to the Great Wall at Jinshanling (hope I have the correct spelling), no tourist shops, and very few tourists. Pollution at a very low level so we could see for a good distance. Much better than the other tourist spots on the wall.

[Porthopper101]

No fuss travel,

 

Thank you very much for a fantastic review. We were suppose to be on the ship with you, but because of the fire, we cancelled and rebooked it for next year.

 

Safe journey home.

 

Marie

[no fuss travel]

Once we got Sun, our tour guide quietened down, we managed to make our way outside of the port to find our van for going to the Great Wall at Huangyaguan. It was not what one would call an interesting drive as we drove the highway most of the way until we pulled off to go to a nearby city for lunch. The hotel seemed empty and when we went upstairs to the restaurant we were the only occupants. That was of course until the Oceania tour buses (4 of them, completely full) arrived about 45 minutes after we did. Our tour supplied us with a nicer lunch than what Oceania passengers got, and we got to know our tour guide a bit better. He was still steamed with the security at the port, who would not let the driver park in the parking lot directly across from the port building and were going to arrest him because he insisted on waiting inside for our tour group. We arrived off the ship just in time to save him as the security guards were moving towards him as I came rushing out of the terminal to meet him. He was quite entertaining as he identified various towns as we drove by. There are a lot of new towns being built and they are trying to shift industry from the immediate Beijing area to outside areas closer to the port. Once we finished lunch, we were on our way to the wall. No more nice smooth highway. Curvy road, and it was better not to watch the driver overtaking trucks, buses etc as we made our way to the wall. We saw typical villages of what you would expect to see in China and you could definitely see the differences between the wealthy and the poor. They are better off than the people of Cambodia and they appear to be happy. We finally arrived at the wall and Sun snuck us through the back gate into the complex. He then had to go buy our entrance tickets and the guards came out and locked the gates we came in on. We walked around the complex in an anti clockwise route. The first part you walked through was the army settlement built to protect the wall and house the soldiers and generals. All this area has been rebuilt, so you are not looking at original buildings, but it has been built as a replica of what was originally there, basically a walled fort. Some of the original wall is there, but to make it safer for tourism it has had massive repairs. We arrived before the tour buses, so we basically had the wall to ourselves for the first hour. Lots of stairs and if you have walking sticks, a good idea to take them with you. You can walk out to the outer wall, but there are many many steps to climb to get to the wall and once on the wall you have many more steps to climb. Due to time constraints we chose not to climb the outer wall.

 

While on this portion of the wall, watch out for the monks. They hand you incense sticks and try to get you to make a huge donation. Our guide told us not to light them and give them back, so we followed his instructions. Some of our group was a little slower then the first few, so they got caught and ended up making a donation.

 

It was a nice sunny day, but bitterly cold. The wind seemed to seep inside your coat and you felt chilled to the bones. We then reached the portion of the wall around the town where we could choose to climb up the wall further to get some great pictures or we could go back to the entrance and return to our van. With the exception of one of our group, most of us decided to climb. Some turned back before others.

 

Surprise, surprise. Guess who we met while climbing this part of the wall and also as we were descending. Crew from the Nautica. Oceania had rented buses so that the crew could visit the Great Wall. As the ship was basically empty that day, most of the dining room staff as well as room stewards and others were allowed to take the tour. There was 3 buses of Nautica crew which we thought was really nice. They took pictures of us on the wall and we took pictures of them. They had to hurry back to their buses as they had to be on the bus by 3 pm to return to the ship. We were not in such a hurry so had more time here.

 

The countryside here is barren, not that much vegetation, but very pretty in a stark way. Once we all came down from our venture up the wall (the photographers were the slowest to return) we walked back to the parking lot where we met up with the driver and guide. Our poor guide had wrenched his knee the day before and could hardly walk by this time. Before we boarded the van, we used the WC, Squatty potties, ice cold water, no tp, no towels, no soap.

At this point we were looking forward to going home and having western toilets, soap and the other essentials.

 

Our driver beat the crew buses down the mountain and we only stopped so that he could refuel his car. At this point the crew buses passed us, but since they made a stop at the highway WC/break stop, we passed them and got back to the ship first.

 

The nasty cold wind had stopped, but the temperature had not improved much. What was aggravating here is that the guard would not let us use the door we came out in the morning, and sent us a wild goose chase trying to find a door that was open to gain entrance into the building. This was really the only spot where I can say with complete honesty, that the port officials were a pain in the lower part of the anatomy. We did finally make it inside the terminal, found our way through a very empty building (no shops, no restaurants) and made our way through the metal detector machines, through the door with heavy plastic strips, onto the dock and finally onto the ship. Several of our tour group had to get up at 4 am to catch a bus to get them to the airport on time, so they were very anxious at this time to be back on the ship.

 

We went to our cabin, appreciated the warmth, and generally defrosted. While we were getting warmed we started our packing for the next day, as we were staying an extra two nights in Beijing before flying back home. We did not have to be off the ship until 8:30 am, which was a bit more of a relaxing start to the next day. We ended up eating dinner in the Terrace Cafe, because nothing on the menu appealed, so I ended up eating sushi which was a much lighter dinner than usual.

[SellaVee]

What an interesting insight you've given us into Bejing (Tianjin), nofusstravel, both in terms of the officialdom and the weather. Delighted to hear that the crew got an outing too.

 

I'm looking forward to hearing about the remainder of you stay in Bejing.

[no fuss travel]

We took advantage of the Oceania $99 special for two extra nights in Beijing. They had us staying at the Crowne Plaza Beijing Lido Hotel. Fairly new hotel, was not quite a year old.

 

Disembarkation actually went quite smoothly. We thought after the hassle the day before that we would have problems with the port officials, but the luggage made it safely off the ship and the amazing thing was that all of our suitcases were together and we did not have to hunt for them along several rows. Judging from the amount of suitcases in the terminal most people must have already left the ship, much earlier in the morning to catch their flight. We left the ship at 8:30 am and were the last ones on the bus. Some people must have had massive amounts of luggage because they had problems fitting our two larger suitcases underneath the bus. There was a tour guide on the bus and he gave us a run down on the various spots of interest as we went by. This was a tour guide used by Oceania. The only problem is that he kept repeating himself as he was struggling to find the English words he needed. The private guides I had used previously had a much better command of the English language. The bus we were on was only going to our hotel. Oceania had 4 bus loads of people extending their trip to Beijing. The weather today was much warmer than the previous day, so those embarking would not be as cold as we all were the day before. The advantage though of the cold wind was that it blew away the pollution from Beijing and you could actually see the sites without the haze of pollution. While on the bus, they handed out information about the hotel, when we would be picked up two days later to go to the airport, and optional tours that we could take once in Beijing.

 

The optional tours offered were much more reasonable than what Oceania offers and we decided to take the night tour and dinner tour that day. They also offered a city tour and for the next day an all day city tour that saw the main sites as well as shopping time and a trip to the Great Wall at Bandalong. (spelling??)

 

The night tour bus took you around to see Forbidden City lit up at night as well as many other government and historical buildings. It was quite pretty to see, but not nearly as colourful as the Bund in Shanghai. They also took us to the Night Market and now that was an experience. We were glad that we had eaten dinner earlier before we arrived at the market. Locals were busy buying their dinners at the market and to be honest scorpions, giant black spiders, silk worms, locusts, worms, snakes and a few other unmentionables simply did not appeal to me. We did get a picture of a young Aussie trying one of the scorpions. He told us you only get to live once. The night food market was about 2 blocks long and well worth the visit. We walked back to the drop off point to pick up the bus which was the main shopping street in Beijing. At night the street is closed to traffic so that shoppers can easily cross to get to one shop to another. All the name brands were there and the Chinese were very busy shopping. Saw lots of shopping bags being held. Now, dinner which I sort of mentioned before was a real disappointment. This was the worst Chinese food we had in China and yes we had tried some weird things while in the other cities, but they were tasty. The food was not that hot, and yes it was colder than anything that we were served on the Nautica. We get much better Chinese food here at home than we got in Beijing. Restaurant was called The Garden, so if anyone is offered this tour in the future, don't expect great food. Most of us found it quite bland and tasteless.

 

The bus made it to the hotel around noon. Our rooms were ready for us when we arrived and it took them only about 20 minutes to get the group checked in. Our luggage was brought up to our rooms later. After the cabins on the ship, the rooms felt huge and the bathroom enormous. The only problem with the shower was that the floor slanted towards the shower door and you flooded out the bathroom overtime you had a shower. The bed was very comfortable and once we figured out the thermometer the room was a comfortable temperature. We ate lunch at the cafe in the hotel which had a special and it was fairly reasonable and the food was good. We just went for a walk around the area of the hotel and found some interesting parks to wander through in the afternoon. It was actually nice to have a slow day after climbing all the steps the Great Wall the day before. We needed the rest before we tackled another portion of the wall the next day.

[no fuss travel]

We were picked up by Andy at 8 am to start our tour. Another part of the Great Wall had been suggested to us to go see, but Andy told us the picturesque part of the wall was Jinshanling. We had been to two parts of the Great Wall near Beijing, the sky was clear, so we decided to take his advice and go to Jinshanling.

 

It was a 3.5 hour drive there from the hotel and we detoured to see a temple on our way there, but the temple was so crowded that we did not enjoy it. The Great Wall made up though for all the traffic problems and the crowded temple. We arrived at 11:30 and the guide suggested that we eat lunch before we walked the wall. Smart move.

 

Lunch was something else. This is definitely not a tourist trap portion of the wall. The restaurant was not westernized at all. The owner brought in a lump of coal to put in the stove to give some heat to the room. On the walls of the eating area were photos taken by the owner. He had some incredible pictures of the wall during the different seasons. We sat with our coats on until the coal in the stove started to heat up the room. At that time the food started to arrive. We had the traditional rice dish with seafood, a vegetable dish, eggplant which was delicious, and a chicken dish. HOT, HOT, HOT with chilli peppers. Even the guide, local born had to remove some of the chilli peppers. The dish was very spicy and you had respiration running down your face, the dish warmed you up so much. Thank goodness for the tea of which we drank too much trying to cool down our tongues. The dish was delicious though and yes we enjoyed it.

 

After lunch we had problems finding a WC that was open. It was not high season, so the rates to see the wall were more reasonable. We figured the reason why they did not charge as much was because most of the toilets were closed for the season. We did find a facility though before we started our climb.

 

This is not a portion of the wall for those with walking disabilities to go to. Lots of stairs. Mind you in the high season there is a gondola to take people up the first part of the hill, but once on the wall, there are lots of stairs. This is a more natural part of the wall as it has not been restored as much as other parts of the wall. The view is phenomenal and we lucked out that the smog was hardly noticeable. if you are into hiking and staying in a B&B, you can hike this portion of the wall. It will take you several days to do it, and the accommodation is definitely not 3, 4 or 5 star. You will need to take your own sleeping bag with you and shower availability may be iffy.

 

Once up on the wall, locals are there to assist you. They do not pester you but at the end of your time on the wall, they will try to get you to purchase tourist items. They do have a beautiful book which the locals took pictures of the wall during the four seasons that yes we broke down and purchased. This book is only available at the wall and our guide was impressed with the pictures. Everything else, bargain hard.

 

When we came down from the wall, four hours later, yes we walked over 12 km that day along portions of the wall, we found the only WC open. It is not heated. The door consists of comforters that you have to push aside to enter the facility. No hot water, soap, or tp, but it was clean. Squatty potties of course, but there was one western toilet, and by this time I was cold as the wind had come up again, I was glad to find the western toilet. :D We then walked down to the car for the ride back to Beijing.

 

Oh no, more officials. They were stopping all cars entering Beijing and this added an extra hour on to our commute. There was the annual all China government conference on in Beijing, so security was pretty high. It was funny, though that once the guards, saw our white faces, they allowed us through the checkpoint without having to have the entire car searched. They didn't want to inconvenience tourists, which alas they had, but they didn't realize it. It was fun to watch the others in the line jockeying for their position in the lineup. There are some very rude drivers in China.

 

The ride was smooth, until we got close to Beijing and hit the traffic jam. There are four lanes officially on their highways leading to the ring roads, but in reality I counted 7 different lanes of traffic. Our guide told us that if you do not drive aggressively, you will never reach your destination. He played chicken with quite a few cars. I think some drivers saw that he had tourists in the car and allowed him to advance a few times. We finally made it back to the hotel, after having a very enjoyable day.

 

The hotel had given us vouchers for a free drink, so after we warmed up in our room, we headed down to the lounge to enjoy. We met up with 2 other couples from the ship and we all shared our experiences for the day. We all decided that it was too cold to go outside and we weren't really willing to take chances crossing the road to get to a restaurant, so we ate in the hotel. They had a buffet, both western and Chinese, so there was a fairly good selection. They had a special on, buy one buffet, the other eats free, so after looking at the menu, it was more reasonable to eat the buffet. We were the last table to leave the restaurant that night as we all had a very enjoyable evening recounting stories from the cruise and what we had seen while touring Beijing.

 

Time to head up and go to bed as all the fresh air had caught up with us, and we were sleepy.

[no fuss travel]

Our pickup time for the airport was 2 pm, so that meant that we could sleep in, no tours, have a leisurely breakfast, and finish packing or should I say actually start the packing for going home. It was time to bring out the scale to make sure the luggage was under 50 pounds.

 

Breakfast at the hotel was buffet style. We found breakfasting later that the selection was not nearly as good as they did not replenish the buffet. Very little fruit this day. The omelet here are not nearly as good as those onboard. We found the staff in the dining room spoke very little English and it was very hard to get our tea and coffee this morning.

 

Breakfast over and then it was time to face the packing. The hotel graciously allowed us to stay in our rooms until it was time to go which gave us plenty of time to pack. We ended up emptying all of the suitcases and starting from scratch. It was time to pack the hiking boots (which we found quite helpful when climbing the wall and dealing with the cold in Japan and Korea as well as hiking in Taiwan), the hiking poles and a few awkward souvenirs we had purchased. Remember I did visit a silk factory, and that was my downfall this trip, but I will enjoy my silk comforters for years. It took us 2 hours to get everything packed perfectly and within the weight restrictions. It is amazing how much paper one collects while away and of course I had to scoop up all the toiletries offered in the hotels as I donate them to the Battered Women's Shelter when I get home. Those toiletries did add a lot of weight though and that is where I had to do most of my shuffling.

 

We called for the porter at 1:30 after we had eaten lunch and waited down in the hotel lobby. We were surprised to see how many of us were leaving on Air Canada and most of us were on the same flight. The van they brought to take all of us to the airport was stuffed to the gills with suitcases as many of our fellow travellers had brought many mementos to carry home with them.

 

The airport was a zoo. I couldn't believe how many bags people were checking. Most were way over their limit. The line did move slowly and we got into the security lineup 90 minutes before we were to board. The first security was just a scan of your carryon and walking through the machine, then down the escalator to catch the train to the terminal where you were boarding your plane. Then the nasty stuff started. First you had to line up to exit China. They forgot to tell us that we needed an exit paper, so we had to get out of line to fill out the exit paper. Once we got through the immigration part, then we had to stand in line before we could go through security. SLOW:eek: By this time we were down to 60 minutes before boarding and we still had to go through security. The line up was excruciating long and seem to move slower than a snail. We finally got up to the front of the lineup and then had to lineup for the Xray machine and the famous people beeper machine. For the X-ray machine you had to remove keys, change, cameras, batteries, flashes, lens paper, open glass cases and explain why they didn't have glasses in them, take off your shoes, belts, and so on. If they didn't like your bag, they then dumped everything in it and put all the small things in a bin and put your bag through the X-ray machine. By the time they had finished with their silliness we were now down to 20 minutes before boarding time. It was a long hike to the gate and we had about 10 minutes to wait until they lined us up to board the plane. At this point I must admit I could hardly wait to leave China. The officialism in Beijing has soured us on returning to China as the redcap was miserable and so were the security and immigration personnel.

 

The cruise though was fantastic with the exception of the officials and I would recommend the cruise to anyone who wants to see this part of the world. One does need to take extra time to see more of China as it is a fascinating country.