Day 1 in Beijing
Our first day in Beijing, China was a total rush! It was actually kind of a trip, cause we left Portland at 9:00am on Thursday, July 14th (my b-day!) and arrived in Beijing at 5:00pm on Friday, July 15th. Let me just say, the jet lag was a bitch. We went to bed at like, 10:00pm! Lol. When we got in to the airport, we were kind of confused as to what to do. I was super surprised because going through customs was a breeze compared to the U.S., and I had expected it to be a nightmare.
Once we were out of the airport, we caught a taxi to our apartment. This was our first real China adventure, as the taxi driver did not speak more than a couple of words of English. This was also our second surprise, because the hour long taxi ride to the apartment only cost like, $12.00! That is crazy! Anywho..the taxi driver dropped us off about 5 blocks from our apartment and we trekked it with our luggage until we found the right spot. Luckily, we ran into a woman who spoke English, and she was able to guide us to the complex.
The addresses in China are very interesting, it’s not like what we have in the United States with the 1234 SW Jefferson Street type of deal. No, in China, it’s “1784795 Xuoxhong around the corner from Suozhuo and down behind building 6 on the left.” But all in traditional Mandarin Chinese lettering, so you can imagine our confusion!
Once we found our apartment, we had to try to find the key to the apartment haha. We rented our apartment from AirBnB and the host did not speak English, so we had been translating our conversations with Google Translate, and I don’t think everything was coming across correctly, so we had some confusion as to how to get the key. Our neighbor was really helpful though, and called the host for us on her phone and helped us find the key 🙂
The apartment itself was nice. It was a small studio with a balcony that overlooked the alleyway between the complex buildings. It had a bathroom with a real toilet, so that was awesome, as most of the toilets in China are just holes in the ground!
Since we were so tired from our travels and our adventures, the only thing we did that night was walk along the street right near our apartment and find a place for dinner. The neighborhood we stayed in had a lot of authentic restaurants and we ate at one called New Spicy Way just around the corner from the apartment. The servers and owner were so helpful! They seemed really excited to help us find something to eat. We ended up eating a Swiss chard appetizer, which is really popular in China, as well as a chicken dish and a beef dish. I also had one of the local beers! The food at this place was soooo good, it was probably one of the best restaurants we ate at during our entire trip!
After dinner we were so exhausted, we just decided to turn in early 🙂 We had an early day of touristy stuff ahead of us, so we need our beauty rest!
xo,
B
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