Flights:
SIN-PEK 0930 to 1530 on Air China
I was quite fortunate to get my personal screen on board because it is apparently rare for Air China planes to be equipped with personal screens. Was seated beside a male Chinese who was quite keen on straightening out his outer wear (which was actually a thin shirt) to make sure it doesn't get crumpled when he sits on it.
Then I reach Beijing. The air looks cleaner than hazy Singapore. I find the enthusiastic greeters (one of them was Raphael) who escorted me to the bus with several other delegates (including Shaun) waiting.
We waited around somemore before we get transported to Beijing International Hotel. There, more delegates appeared and the hotel lobby was a mob of delegates and greeters/coordinators. Most do not speak Mandarin and require the assistance of the coordinators. Since we could speak Mandarin, we could settle the check in ourselves.
The next day, we got shipped out of the hotel for the high speed train to Jinan. The ride was quite smooth and they provided beverages and a small snack pack on board.
We got first class seats but the business class ones were even better. A coordinator speaks to the entire cabin full of delegates with whatever English he could muster and apologizes for his bad English at the end of his announcement. The delegates clap and laugh. We were unfortunate to be seated in front of 2 delegates who talked non stop during the bus ride to the high speed train station AND on the high speed train to Jinan so we barely got to nap.
Accomodation at Jinan was the Shandong Da Sha Hotel, which was excellent. They even have their own movie on demand (but I only realized this on the 2nd day!) and I watched Argo. Was mildly disappointed to get a twin room instead of a double but no complaints since I don't foot the bill.
We have all meals at the hotel restaurant with a lake (man-made) view. At the end of the trip, I was so sick of international buffet. Shouldn't we eat proper local Chinese food instead?
We were very well taken care of by Yang Chao and her friends. Had dinner outside on both nights with plenty of maotai to go along, and also zu2 liao2 on the 2nd night.
The Chinese were very good at giving gifts as well. In the end I had to throw away a lot of the boxes and packaging in order to stuff the things into my tiny luggage!
It was quite unfortunate that our itineraries were so rushed and we did not have time to visit the local attractions. Yang Chao said we must come back again and they will bring us around. Such hospitality and warmth. Many thanks to our coordinator, Ms Jiang Xiaolin as well. We probably were the most fuss free delegates since we could get by and handle a lot of stuff on our own given our command of language.
On Monday we left in the afternoon to catch the high speed train back to Beijing and checked into Beijing International again. This time, I was given a much better room than before. It was excellent and so conducive for working that I stayed up till close to midnight churning out EIC questions (...). Actually we wanted to head out (cos Shaun wants to shop) but the weather was not looking too great so we ended up staying indoors.
And that concludes the very uneventful official leg of my work trip.
