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We
were still an hour or so delayed, when we arrived at
Beijing
International airport. We managed to
sleep - sitting in business class seats makes it so much easier, so we didn’t
feel too bad as we queued up for passport control. The immigration
officer at the front of our queue only handled 50% of the people that the neighbouring female officer
managed – why do we always choose the wrong queue? Our baggage arrived, and
Jenny, our excellent guide in Beijing, was waiting for us - amongst the crowds of people
waiting for international arrivals. We exchanged some money at the
airport – why had we taken US Dollars instead of Danish Kroner, and ended up paying exchange fees
twice?
The
customary Chinese bus, without any room for luggage, was waiting for us. We
drove to our hotel – the Jianguo Hotel in Beijing. The sun was shinning
but it felt cold. Check-in at the hotel went smoothly and we received a nice, clean room with two
double beds - room 311. We
called Thomas, it was early
morning in Denmark – luckily he was already feeling better after a good nights
sleep.
Yanmei
didn't react to seeing lots of people looking like her (when she was younger she
always pointed at other Asians - and always said "Chinese", no matter
their nationality). We stopped off for coffee
and a big ice cream for Yanmei as a “reward” for seeing the passport fall
off the counter – she hardly ate any of it! Beijing
seems even more "Americanised"
than last time, more cars, lots of new multi-storey buildings - at least along
the main thoroughfares - more fast food outlets, more billboards and more tourists.
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then along
Jianguomenwai. We bumped into the SAS
stewardesses (shopping) and a Norwegian couple that had just adopted.