Blue Skies, Blue Lips, Bagless and Quick Lessons in Bargaining

After the longer stopover in Singapore we finally landed in Beijing at 10.30pm last night (Sunday night), hoping that we would rendezvous with our checked-in luggage either on the Singapore Airlines luggage carousel or the Qantas flight that came in from Honkers 20min before. We were not surprised though to find our 3 missing bags on neither, so after a 40min talk with the Beijing Airport luggage office we were on our way into the city still bagless but with 2,200 Yuan as compensation for the screw-up. Along with this were changed plans to head to the clothes shops this morning to get a clean pair of pants and a shirt to change into.


Amy’s work colleague met us at the airport with driver and 20min later we were at the temporary accommodation just up from the Australian Embassy. The digs are very modern if somewhat quirky in its inclusions (no coffee mugs, but plenty of beer steins). Maddy is loving having her own ensuite, and while not large the apartment is very warm and offers great views of the skyline and the street below (we are on the 6th floor). It was quick to bed for Amy and Maddy while Reece stayed up for the washing to finish so we could have some clean and dry clothes for the first day of orientation.

Reece enjoying a Beerstein-a-chino with Maddy in the apartment

Those who talk of restless first nights in a new place forgot to tell my body, as I think I had the best night’s sleep of my life. It was a quinella then to wake up to clear blue skies over Beijing with the sun shining down. The true weather was quickly exposed though as we opened the windows to take some photos (-9 to 0° today, but the wind made it feel colder). Still, it was very refreshing after so long on a plane and the wind does wonders in clearing the smog. It was amazing to see how many people were riding around on bikes with children on the back of their bike, at a time when the wind was cutting through anything of mine not rated to sub-arctic temperatures (special kudos to the guy with the Chinese gameboard strapped to his bike pannier rack – Chinese Checkers anyone?)

Blue sky over Beijing. Hopefully not a rare sighting.

Today was always going to be a busy day, so when our guide came by and picked us up we headed directly to Yaoshan markets to spend the Singapore Airlines $$. After an hour of wheeling and dealing the results were mixed. While Amy did well on her negotiating I paid too much for my first purchase (two pairs of pants – still only $35 each). I did though learn quickly and drove a hard bargain for my next two purchases, even getting one storeowner so upset that they initially refused to provide me with a receipt “for such a small amount” – the fact that there was true venom in her voice must mean I had the final price somewhere near right.


After this we headed to meet the person that Amy is replacing, where Maddy made an immediate friend over lunch at a Cuban cafe/bar. After lunch we met back up with the guide and did the important things of opening up a Chinese Bank Account (20min to open, and we walked away with a fully operational debit account at that time – Aust banks need to look at this), and then onto a tour of the Beijing fresh food market and then onto grocery shopping and one of Beijing’s biggest flower markets (Surprise! Amy liked this more than me).

A sample from the Flower Market that greeted us at our apartment.

Lessons learned during this session are that it will be very expensive to continue to eat a western diet (check out the small pantry filling which cost us the equivalent of $175), and that Beijing parking inspectors make their Canberra equivalent look like little harmless lambs. Pull up on the side of a Beijing sidewalk for any longer than 1 minute and they converge suddenly to try and swindle a Yuan or two. To watch our driver arguing with the parking inspector and refusing to pay before simply driving off was to demonstrate why the Chinese are so successful at business – they only believe in winning a negotiation.

At 55 Yuan for the jar (around $14), this Vegemite is a better investment here than gold or platinum.

All in all it was a great first day, and while we expect to have some difficult times ahead at least we have started out on a positive note. It’s certainly not Canberra, but it’s not as different as I thought it would be. Tomorrow Amy is heading into the office, while Maddy and I will take the opportunity to explore the city a bit more around the Embassy.

Streets full of modern cars. Part of the Government's plan to keep the pollution down.

**LATE BREAKING NEWS** Our bags were tracked down this evening and dropped into the citty for us by the airport company. Thanks the gods for that one - one of the missing bags had our coffee maker in it and if that wasn't found then things might have got ugly :-)