Hong Kong and Beijing

Hong Kong:
We went back to Hong Kong, and were staying in a hotel that charge an enormous amount (relatively so) for internet access. So, instead of paying that, we waited until we moved to another hotel... which Cullen picked because they weren't supposed to charge for internet service... fail....They only don't charge in the more expensive rooms. Now, in all honesty. The hotel prices were quite fair. We paid about 100-160 USD per night... of course put in HKD it seems like a lot. It was 1188HKD for the second hotel we stayed in. Really scary sounding when you put it in HKD.

Cullen had a second conference to go to in Hong Kong, which was over on the evening of the 23rd.We decided to stay an extra 2 days, purchasing a ticked for the train to Beijing for the 26th instead of the 24th... This allowed us to explore a bit. We discovered that the Public transportation in Hong Kong is amazing. There was no need to even consider driving. The buses were clean, the Subway was amazingly clean, and the trains had useful routs. I am very impressed with Hong Kong. Their population density is really high, but they have a great number of options for those who decide not to drive. The area is pretty easy to navigate too. The only issues we had were when we tried to communicate with drivers... of the bus or taxis... most of them speak only Chinese... and rightly so.

The British influence in Hong Kong made it easier to navigate, and understand. Almost every sign was in English as well as Chinese. Even the book stores had books in English.

The nights in Hong Kong were as beautiful as the days. The skies were clear, light by the many many neon lights of the city. The refection of the lights in the waters of the bay were beautiful.

Train ride to Beijing:
I think that taking the train to Beijing was such a brilliant and clever move. The trains in China are fancy. So there are 3 options when picking train seats for a long ride. 1. Hard sleeper- these are the cheapest and most crammed seats on the train. These seats are typically only used by the Chinese. There are 6 to a cabin. This means 6 beds crammed in a little cabin. Not ideal. 2. Soft sleeper- The beds are better, only 4 to a cabin, and they appear to have clean bedding. There is a nifty little table between the two beds, and storage space in front of the top 2 bunks and under the bottom 2. 3. Deluxe Soft Sleeper- only 2 beds per cabin. Very private.

So we requested Deluxe soft sleeper, but they had no tickets left... only the soft or hard sleepers. So we bought soft sleeper, and managed to get a room with no one else in it. We had a nice private ride to Beijing. The train was pretty fast. Cullen said it goes 160kmph... Not too shabby. It was interesting to see the scenery whizzing by. This was my first train ride ever (not including the subways in Hong Kong).

I would recommend this way of travel to anyone. There were, of course, security checks before and after boarding the train. At the final check, Customs got some of Cullen's equipment which was quickly sorted out 2 days later.... they are only open on odd days in July. I believe this is because the train only arrives on odd days in July.

So, we were finally in Beijing... and almost as lost as caterpillars in a paper sack....

Beijing:
Don't ever let anyone tell you the people in China aren't friendly or helpful. We have be helped by several strangers on several occasions. When we emerged from the Train station I was exhausted, frustrated, and tired of moving luggage from one place to another... living out of a suitcase gets very old very fast. I really just wanted to get my hands on some cooking utensils too... Too much greasy foods really does a number on your stomach.

Even though we had arrived... there was still the technicality of getting to our place of residence... We were armed with an address in Chinese, and a contact name, but it was getting late... and who knew what was in store for us.

We first had to get some Yuan... since most of our money was in either HKD or USD... neither helps you in mainland China. Even on the train ride, we had to purchase food with yuan... so we were hunting either an ATM or the Bank of China... the only place you can change USD to Yuan in mainland China. We had a fiasco last time I tried to do this, in Dongguan... they didn't want to take any damaged bills... so no bills that were torn, too worn out on the president's face, or had been taped... They don't do that in Hong Kong, but in Dongguan they sure did.... so Cullen ran off to find a bank, leaving me to watch our 5 bags....I am still regretting packing so much of this junk.

While I stood there, many Chinese walked by... staring. I had been warned, but I was thinking it was another of those falsehoods I had read on the internet (bring plenty of deodorant, you can't find good toothpaste, there's not dental floss... BAH... they have deodorant, Colgate toothpaste.... the exact same kind I brought tons of ... and yes Virginia... there is dental floss.... no joke you can't belive everything you read on the internet... BAH! We should have brought more socks, shoes, and I could really use some Acetone to remove these nails right now... I'm sure I can find some though.... they have everything here... I just need to learn to speak/read Chinese). So, yes, they will stare at foreigners... especially in certain parts of town. More on that later.

Cullen, as sweet as he is, decided to hurry as fast as he could to find money, so we could get going, and he wouldn't have to leave me standing there for too long... now he is wearing a blister for it... Anyway, he found an ATM and we hopped into a Taxi. Our driver was great.. when we reached IHEP (Institute of High Energy Physics) we were trying to find the Guest House, but being that it is inside the campus, it was not readily obvious where it was... so he hopped out of the car twice to ask people where it was... it was Awesome! Kudos to great Taxi Drivers!

So, at the Guest House, which is a hotel on the Campus, we had to stay a night at a ridiculously cheap rate... 280 Yuan a night (the exchange rate is between 6 and 7 yuan to the dollar). I can say that every hotel I have stayed in here in China is amazingly cleaner and has much better service than any I have ever stayed in in the states... excluding the Zaza... that one doesn't count. That hotel is in a wholly different price range...

So after our single night stay in the Guest House and our dinner at the "Expert Restaurant" We were ready to finally settle into our apartment.

The Apartment:
So i have been laughing a bit on the way here about how EVERYONE has laundry hanging out to dry... oh boy... was I in for the fun.

We met our wonderful, helpful, amazing contact on Monday morning... She took us to the police station to register (I was told that how they do things here, and I didn't argue) then we came back to find the apartment. The rent on the apartment is 2000 Yuan a month... yeah... I know... really cheap. There is also a 3000 Yuan deposit on the place. So, unfortunately they don't do credit cards here... anyone planning to visit should know... ATM is your best friend here. You may have to do a bit of math to figure out how much your daily limit is but it is worth the time. Since we didn't have the cash on us, they didn't stress out... it was something I have not experienced in a very very long time... they trusted us to pay them within the next few days... really... and still let us move into the apartment...

So, the things that are worth noting:
Clothes dryers... they don't believe in them. There is a fancy high efficieny washer with a quick disconnect that attaches to a faucet in the shower room under the hot water heater.... talk about space saver...

Shower.. who needs to enclose that? It's attached to the toilet room, and drains into the floor down one of 2 drains either in the shower room or the toilet room... interesting design.

Oven.. nope.. none... fail. Sadly there is no oven in the apartment.

So, since they don't believe in dryers, I am now the proud laundry day expert at hanging the clothes in the balcony/laundry drying room. The room has clothes rods running to hang the plastic hangers on, and a little twirrely clip thing for the small articles... it's fun.. but this also means we will need an iron and ironing board for Cullen's new fancy custom shirts he bought in Hong Kong. He also bought a suit there.

Amazingly the only thing we managed to loose was 1 towel along the way... or so we have noticed so far.

This brings us up to yesterday.

IKEA Beijing:
So, there are a few things we still need in the apartment. We need towels and some containers... odd and ends we know we can get from IKEA. We suspect that there is an IKEA in town since our apartment is furnished completely in IKEA furniture... Ahh the irony.

Immediately after the internet got connected yesterday.... after checking e-mails and such... we looked up where the store was... checked our subway map and street map... and set out to find it. Yes... the Ikea is EXACTLY the same as the IKEA in Houston... except they sell booze... Yes, alcohol is sold in IKEA Beijing.

Getting there was a battle. We made it to the subway stop we thought was closest and spoke to one of the many Olympic volunteers that were manning talbes and street corners in this part of town. There were many foreginers out here too. Well, the volunteer told us we went to the wrong spot, and needed to go one more station. So, after re-entering the subway (2.00 Yuan per ticket...) we got off at the next stop. Now we tried for a cab... it was as if no one knew what IKEA was... so we walked a bit.... then stopped for a bit to drink, where one of the guys in the store said we should take a taxi, and that it was easy....so we tried a taxi again. This time, we were helped by a total stranger, who came up and told the guy where we wanted to go. He took us to IKEA and then we were in familar territory.

I don't know how the other cab drivers didn't know where it was... there were like 20 cabs parked outside the building waiting to take people away... and the IKEA was crowded like a Saturday afternoon... not to mention the droves of people in the cafe. This was a Wednesday night... wow.. I was amazed. So, we managed to obtain some sweedish meatballs and some sort of rice and chicken w/mushrooms dish for dinner. Then found the layout to be almost identical to the one in Houston... with much less floor space. I'm sure it dosn't have as many items and such as Houston, but it felt familiar none the less.

That would be our antics for the week... the parts I can remeber anyway...