Getting To Beijing - April 7 & 8, 2010

From decision to departure, the days flew as I successfully procrastinated many of my preparations. But with the help of the excellent China Lonely Planet guide, Staci reserved our accommodations and we prepared an itinerary that fit within the constraints of unchangeable flights and Staci's work obligations.

To get to Beijing, I was booked on Korean Air because they had the cheapest fare ($752) at the time of my initial plan for a solo trip; Debi was on United because she was able to obtain her ticket using mileage benefits; and, Staci was booked on Air China. Each of us were arriving in Beijing at different times over a 4-5 hour period from 3:15pm to 8pm at two different termianls. So our planning included necessary meeting points in a country where only Staci would have a working cell phone (Debi and my Verizon phones don't work in China – or most of the rest of the world for that matter) so we arranged meeting places: no easy/foolproof task at an unknown, massive airport. Thereafter Staci coordinated with our accommodations who had offered inexpensive transport from the airport.

Debi and my flights half the way around the world were pleasant. And to answer a frequent question, the actual flight from the west coast of the United States to Beijing is about 12 hours non-stop where one arrives in Beijing having “lost” an entire day. For example, Debi's nonstop flight from San Francisco departed around noon on April 7 and arrived 12 hour later in Beijing where the time was around 3pm on April 8. But the common question: “How long does it take to get to Beijing?” is actually more complicated because most flights departing from Portland require a connection in either San Francisco or Seattle. Similarly the less-expensive flights often require a stop someplace else as well – for example, both of my trips to China required in Seoul, South Korea. This time I was on three different planes, from three different airports that took a total of 19 hours from departure in Portland to landing in Beijing (not including the extra hours to arrive at the airport prior to flight time). Good fortune allowed me to move up to an early flight to San Francisco – so Debi and I were able to coordinate a lunch meeting at the airport there before we again when our separate ways to our separate flights.

My flights went quickly as I ended up with some pretty interesting seat-mates. Coming out of Portland I sat next to a man who appeared to be in his 30's who was from Tibet. He left Tibet without a passport or a birth certificate – and was now making a special trip to the Chinese consulate in San Francisco to try to convince them to give him a twice-denied visa to visit his dying mother in Tibet. Then out of San Francisco, I sat next to two men (not traveling together) – one a 66 year old OB doctor from California who was headed to Thailand to marry a young bride with whom he had very limited contact (3 week visits a few times a year) – and the other guy in his early 50's had met, through internet connections, a Chinese “girlfriend” who spoke no English (arranged and interpreted by another). It was fun to have an opportunity to get a first hand look and have conversations with the type of guys that I had seen during my earlier trip to China – older American guys with young Asian girlfriends.

All meet-ups in Beijing worked as arranged – and it was exciting to be greeted by my daughters in Beijing and begin this adventure together. The driver whisked us to our accommodations – a “backpacker” hostel recommended by Lonely Planet – and we were very pleased to find the place to be very nice with 3 single beds in a spacious, private room/bath. Cost per night for all three of us: $270 yuan – the equivalent of about $45 USD breakfast included. As we learned during our previous trip, China hostels are a wonderfully inexpensive alternative for people like us who don't require more than a clean, private room/bath – and many, like this one, are located in wonderfully close-in to city centers and/or attractions. In this case, we are walking distance from the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square – our planned destination for the morning.

We celebrated our successful first two days of our adventure with a shared a Tsingtao beer – and were in bed by 11 pm local time with our bodies reminding us that they knew we had stayed up all night (we had only slept briefly on the planes) – it was 8am back in Portland and we had been awake/on the move since 4am the prior morning.