Arrival in Beijing

I found Mario with a help of a quick phone call at the arrival hall of the amazingly big airport (by the way, Mario told me that I have been in 2 of the 5 largest buildings of the world on my journey (Dubai Terminal 3 and Beijing Airport).

 We took a Taxi to get to the apartment which developed to my first thrilling adventure. The only existing rule on Beijing’s streets: “first come first serve” and “my horn is louder than yours so I come first”. 

A short explanation about horning: In contrast to Europe horning is not commonly used as a tool to insult or greet others on the street, but to tell everybody “watch out, I am coming!!”. Especially regarding change of lane, passing RED traffic lights, doing a full U-turn on a packed 12 lane street and so on.

Normally a taxi ride from the airport to central park tower (this is where I live) takes 45 min, but as I experienced the “worst traffic ever” (Mario) it took us more than 2 hours. I was rather surprised when I paid the taxi driver. It cost 120 Quai – which is about 14 Euro. Ridiculous for a 2 hour, 20 km drive, isn’t it??!
The House is right in the business district. It’s pretty glamorous here! We had a quick welcome-beer at the balcony. Since the flat is on level 26 we have a wonderful view at the skyscrapers of Beijing. 

After a quick shower, Christoffer (the other flat mate) arrived. All together we made our way to a restaurant where I was introduced to Chas (engineer of the CCTV Tower) and his friend from UK James. We ordered a variety of stuff I have never heard or seen before, and when I say we, I mean everybody except me, because I don’t have a clue what’s eatable. By then, I felt the long journey in my head. My Brain became rather fuzzy and will-less as I was I ate a stick of Sparrows. I certainly wouldn’t have done so if I weren’t awake for about 30 hours now. However, the sparrows were quite delicious. 

After we finished dinner, we moved on to a nice bar where we met a couple of more friend of Mario, whose names I can’t remember anymore. We had a couple of beers there and meanwhile I was having a fierce fight against my exhaustion (32 hours awake). So I was rather happy when we started to walk home. 
We walked through the real China, tiny alleys with people sitting on the streets cooking, eating, playing cards or sleeping. Mario tried to explain me where we are and where we are going to but my brain stopped working so I don’t remember anything of what he told me.

After 33 hours travelling thousands of kilometers, jumping from one culture to another it took me only seconds to fall asleep.