China
11 to 21/05/2018
2 adults + baby 17 months
Itinerary
11/05 - Lisbon - Frankfurt - Beijing
12-15/05 - Beijing
15/05 - Beijing - Shanghai
15-21/05 - Shanghai
21/05 - Shanghai - Frankfurt - Lisbon
Flight Lisbon - Beijing
Beijing - Shanghai
Flight Shanghai - Lisbon
Our Stories
May 11th, 3:30 am, the alarm goes off and despite the sleep, it didn't even cost that much to get up, we were excited about the adventure that awaited us. It was going to be a long day ... The truth is that this day only “ended” at Portuguese 00:30 (Chinese 07:30).
We had to arrive at the airport early because we were unable to check in online because of Maria's ticket. Fortunately and although it was 4:30 in the morning the check-in girls at Lisbon airport were very willing and friendly to solve the problem for us and shortly after we were ready for the start of our adventure. From here we would go to Frankfurt airport (3 hours flight time) for a 4 hour stopover where the Air China Boing 777 would take us to Beijing ..
Another 9 and a half hours flight until we finally reached Beijing airport!! But don't think that the adventure of the trip is over here; When entering China, we had 30 machines to collect fingerprints of all passengers on each flight arriving in Chinese territory. Bearing in mind that the machine is not always able to read our fingerprints at first, and that in each plane like ours, around 300 people of different languages arrive and with different skill in the face of new technologies, you can imagine that until we get out of there it took us a good hour and a half. And all this with a baby who woke up at 3:30 am and to whom, despite the clocks at the airport saying it was 7 am, for her, it was midnight! And how well she behaved throughout the day. Both of us were as eager to whine as she was.
After all the bureaucracies were over, we were finally in the People's Republic of China. We took an “official” taxi at the airport and were “stolen” for the first of two times in China. The truth is that we think that because it is official we would pay a fair price and we were not surprised at the amount we were charged. Only later, when we realized the real value of taxis, did we realize how expensive that transfer was (in an old, smelly and dirty taxi).
Finally at the Sunworld Dinasty Hotel Beijing! 8 am and they give us the news that nobody wants to hear after 21/22 hours of airports, flights, stopovers, bureaucracies and a transfer: THE ROOM IS NOT AVAILABLE YET! We wanted to cry, but we took the opportunity to have a first contact with the center of Beijing. We found a deserted center, cloudy and with almost everything closed. We took advantage of one of the few restaurants open, for our first contact with local cuisine, without fluent Chinese, we had to point to a photo on the wall and hope it was good. And it was! Maria can say it :)
After breakfast / dinner, we returned to the hotel, as we had been told that by 09:30 / 10: 00 the room would be ready. AND IT WAS (but there was no crib for Maria), after we asked for a crib, they immediately came to bring it, but it was too small for her, and we had to explain, in our most fluent Chinese, that the mattress was enough for us to put it on the floor and the sheets to make the bed. It was not easy, but we did it and here we had our first contact with the “real Chinese”. They speak nothing else than Chinese, but with good will, we can understand each other. And this was the first of many examples that we have had over those days. We finally managed to rest! (but only for 3 hours, because we wanted to fight jet lag)
On that afternoon, we returned to the center, now full of people, more corresponding to what we expected from a city with 23 million inhabitants. We went to Wangfujing Street, known for its street market, where you can eat anything from Chinese crepes or roasted corn to crickets, scorpions and other things that we prefer not to know what they were, some with good looks and others not so much, some with good smells and others not so much. We opted for corn and Chinese crepe, as the Portuguese saying goes: The bad known is better than the good to know!
During that afternoon, we had a second observation about the Chinese people: a Western child, big eyes, fair and beautiful skin like Maria (cof cof) is an authentic goddess and everyone wants to take pictures, touch and make her smile. We are not saying this in a negative or critical tone ... it is a culture very different from ours and we actually find it funny. They point to it and take photographs, without asking and without any modesty, but they don't do it with bad ideals... it's cultural, perhaps because in China there is a small number of Westerners walking on the streets. After a few minutes we got used to “harassment” and accepted, it happened to us adults a few times also, but in an incomparably smaller proportion.
We spent the rest of the afternoon strolling through the center of the Chinese capital, getting used to jet lag and had our first contact with the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.
The Forbidden City was no longer open for visitors at that time, luckily we met a nice gentleman who had a painting studio, who spoke English and who explained that it would be open the next day. In addition to explaining this to us, he painted a picture with our names in Chinese and found us a car and a guide to take us to the Great Wall of China on next Monday.
We then went back to the hotel and slept for 15 hours straight, we were dead.
We woke up very late and went running to see the famous Forbidden City, we were only going to stay 2 days in Beijing and we didn't want to miss the opportunity to visit the most emblematic places in the city.
We were enchanted by the Forbidden City, besides being beautiful and very imposing, we spent at least two hours there and didn't even see 1/3 of the place, we still tried to go to the Summer Palace, but with the lunch stop at 4 pm , we didn't arrive on time. We will be back the next time.
We strolled around the hotel area for a while and went to sleep early, the next day we would visit the Great Wall of China, we didn't want to miss the hour again.
Third day, the guide arrived at the hotel at the appointed time and we left to see our third wonder of the world, the great wall of China. On the way, we stopped at a jade factory.
The wall was about an hour from the hotel, but it is worth every minute of the trip. It was a foggy and very hot day (very very hot!), Along the way the guide was telling a little about the history of the wall, but when we arrived, it is still much more impressive than she tried to explain. There are no stories, photos or videos that can convey the impact of seeing that monument live. To get up there we had to take a cable car for about 5 minutes and climb five hundred thousand steps, allied to the 50 degrees (at least that's what it seemed to us) that made us, when we finally got there, to be half melted.
We had lunch when we came down from the wall, in a simple restaurant, but the food was great, fried rice, to be eaten, of course, with chopsticks (there are no alternatives there ... it is chopsticks or eat with your hands).
We returned to Beijing and visited a tea shop, where we were able to try several different types. They take tea drinking seriously, each serves one porpouse and there is tea for everything. We took the opportunity to bring some and bring as a gift a toy that pees when the water is at the ideal temperature to make tea (damn it, we never managed the small toy to pee !!!!!!!!!!) We finished the day in Tiantan Park, where the temple of heaven is located, the palace was already closed, but we managed to enjoy the giant garden. There were lots of people walking around, some playing badminton, some old people playing checkers or cards. A group of old women walking arround were delighted with Maria, recording her dances and trying a selfie with her.
On the way back to the hotel, we met a nice Chinese student, who came to talk to us (and who spoke English well, something rare among the Chinese), indicated us a restaurant to eat the famous duck Beijing style, placed the order for us (in Chinese ) and left, a little disillusioned with the Beijing duck in Beijing, we returned to the hotel, and so, we ended this stage of the trip, the next day we would leave for Shanghai.
The next day, we left for Shanghai, it was easier to get to the hotel than in Beijing, we left our bags at the hotel and left to see a little of the city, on the following days André was working and we would have little time to visit the city the three together.
We went to the Bund to see what is probably the most famous view of Shanghai with its skyscrapers illuminated across the river (it was the only day we saw sunshine), the Bund has so many people on the street that the sidewalks aren't sufficient for the volume of people who stroll there. Thus, the only solution they found was to place guards along the streets, to allow pedestrians to use about two meters of road to complement the sidewalk space. Here the cars have to be careful not to be run over!
We went to dinner. We are still to know what we ate.... It looked like meat and there was also a broth where we had to dip the meat. The problem in this restaurant we chose is that the menu was all in Chinese, there were no pictures of the dishes, the employee only spoke Chinese and it was lucky that we were able to order food and not go out with a pair of shoes! lol. At a certain point we tried to ask how big was the portion of broth they were going to bring and he brought us a protector for the rechauds they use to heat the broth. It wasn't that bad ... could have been worse!
The truth is that we don't know what we ate but it was great! And the employee only spoke Chinese but was super friendly and attentive. In other words, it was a very pleasant experience and we still laugh today just thinking about it.
Here we were "robbed" for the second time ... We realized that taxi drivers do not stop when we call them on the street. All Chinese people have platforms to call taxis and that's the only way to get a taxi. We were very tired and were already desperate for not getting a taxi until we finally managed to find one stoped and asked if he would take us to the hotel. The driver gave us the price, which was much more expensive than what we had paid on the opposite route, but... it was that or staying there, we don't know for how long until we found a solution. We decided to accept .
From Wednesday to Saturday, André was at a fair working all day so during the day Camila and Maria took the opportunity to visit the surrounding areas of the hotel and take a walk and on Thursday they went to Disneyland Shanghai. Just like all the others, but with Chinese eyes :) No ... Mickey doesn't have Chinese eyes and neither have any of the characters, but in all the shows, all the interpreters were Chinese, except .... the princesses !! They were all Westerners. There is much more to say about this day but Camila has already made a post about it on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/onossomapa/) and instagram (@onossomapa)
During these days, only one dinner was worth mentioning ... the hotel we stayed in had a revolving restaurant with a 360 ° view of Shanghai. The view is fantastic for the city skyline and has a buffet so we can taste a little bit of everything. In addition, there is a band playing live that ended up playing almost exclusively for us as there were very few people in the restaurant. Maria danced all the songs and was certainly one of the best audiences this band has ever had! The singer and guitarist were delighted and already performed directly for Maria in most of the songs. It was a success!
On Saturday, when we were all three and we had thought to finally visit the city with more time, it rained all day! ALL DAY !!! You may think that there were times when we could see something of the city and you are right because even when we were wet we could continue to see it but it rained ALL DAY! NONSTOP! Still, the city is worth a visit as it is so imposing and so high that it is not easy to have an equal experience all over the world. Two of the five tallest buildings in the world are there and a few meters apart.
We bought a hop on hop off ticket that gave us to ride on panoramic buses, scenic boats and a tunnel under the river to cross from the Bund to the other bank. Now... the “panoramic” part of buses and boats, is very pleasant on sunny days .... It was not the case! Still, we took the opportunity to see what we could of the city and stop in the most touristic places like the old part of the city with its typical Chinese architecture. Very beautiful indeed!
Despite the bad luck with the weather, it was worth the visit and it is a city that we recommend to everyone who asks us!
To say goodbye to China, we went to a typical restaurant that had several dishes cooked with crab. Some better, others not so much, but it was a beautiful dinner to end in beauty!
The next day it was time to return to Portugal and we returned with a great desire to know more about China and delighted with the Chinese. The Lufthansa A380 was waiting for us for yet another new experience: flying a 2-floor plane.... After all, it is just like flying on any other plane. We didn't even go upstairs (or downstairs, we don't remember anymore).
