Ni Hao! It’s our first night in Beijing! We disembarked from Air China flight 0982 at about 8 PM on what is now May 9th in some places of the world. The flight was long due to delays, but calm and manageable all the same. Unfortunately, we fell even further behind schedule when we found that some of the luggage did not make the journey with us. My first glimpse of China came from the Beijing airport. It may be one of the nicest airports I have ever seen. The floors are marble and very clean, the ceiling has some interesting framework, there are banners of welcome in every language, and the shuttle between terminals seemed very modern just as I expected China to be.
We finally made our way out of the airport, boarded our coach bus from Tsinghua University, and made our way to Xi Jiao Hotel. I won’t lie, passing through Beijing that first night was a little intimidating. It seemed that apartment buildings illuminated by hundreds of windows stretched as far up and distant as the eye could see. Fluorescent signs were all written in strange characters that were impossible for me to read. And the smoky air made it extremely difficult to breathe.
We unpacked quickly at the hotel and headed off to get some dinner even though it was then 11 PM. The restaurant we went to was small and quaint. It was there that I met our tour guide, Vivien. She sat at my table and helped us order. I was actually amused to find that restaurants in China are much more relaxed when it comes to service. Vivien quickly ordered our meal by filling out what looked like a spread sheet and then helped herself to the dishes and chopsticks for us. We received a large pot of porridge, the specialty of the restaurant. Although I did not think it looked appealing, the porridge was pretty good. I struggled to use the chopsticks and wondered at Vivien’s perfect ability to pick up a single, slippery dumpling. I also tried Vivien’s warm almond juice which was also surprisingly good. I would say that my first experience with authentic Chinese food was successful, even if I was not completely full or my taste buds completely satisfied! I fell asleep that night thinking how lucky I am to be in China and secretly hoping that Beijing is less scary in the daylight.