I have been to a few countries and I can say that Beijing China is the worst place I have ever been to. From the airport to the hotel, to the people. This was once the most anticipated place hubby and I looking forward to visiting. But then it was indeed the worst trip ever.
When we booked our flights to the Philippines a few months back, hubby and I decided to choose the ticket which has long flight intervals in one country. The only option is Beijing hence that one flight with connecting flight to Bangkok was already closed. So we choose the one with one stop in Beijing. The one with a day and night stop in Beijing in hoping that we can explore the city while waiting for the next flight to Manila. We are really so excited about it and even booked our hotel right away. Since I am a Filipino, I need a visa if I want to visit China. So I get one. Hubby and my daughter don’t need it since they have Finnish passports. I had already bad experience in the Chinese embassy in Helsinki when I filed my visa and I never thought that it will happen the same in their country.
Well, here’s what happened to us in Beijing.
We arrived early morning from a nine hours flight from Helsinki. Tired and exhausted at the same time excited to start our day hoping to explore the city while waiting for our evening flights to Manila. Because we didn’t know anything we tried to ask someone how to get to the city. Unfortunately, no one can answer us in English. So we ended up confused and don’t know what to do. We went outside of the airport and a taxi driver approached us. He said he could bring us to Forbidden city and back for the amount of 1000 RMB. That seems expensive so we refused. We went back inside and asked the information desk. She said the taxi will cost about 150 to the city one way. So obviously that taxi driver we talked earlier tried to rip us. The lady at the information suggested we took a train from the airport to the city. We trust her. We bought a ticket and talk to the guy who speaks English well. We are happy finally we can go to the city and have a city tour. Finally, someone who can speak English showed us how to get to the city. Off we took the train. The guy told us we should go down at the last stop of the train.
So we went inside the train and find a perfect seat for us. We are so excited and very much happy. On the train, the baby girl was so happy at first but soon as we go she started screaming and scared. Both hubby and I tried to make Rianna calm. She cannot ruin our day as we are very excited about that day’s adventure.
It has few stops and we never realized the last stop at all. There was no information that it was already the last stop and that we should go down. We just noticed that every passenger left on the train are all with big suitcases. It was obviously time to go back to the airport. Hubby and I were both speechless when we realized that the train was on the way back to the airport. We are very upset but we have nothing to do. And then we are back to the airport. We cannot ask anyone because they cannot speak English. I wish I have the internet at that time so I can at least use a translator on the iPhone to translate some words.
Our next flight was at 9 pm in the evening. And it was only past 8 am. We literally wasted our time at the airport. We do not want to pursue the city tour anymore because maybe something worst may happen. So we decided to just stay at the airport. At the airport hungry and tired and frustrated we tried to find someplace to eat. We went to this pizza hut restaurant and stood there along with other people on the line. No one told us that while falling in line we have to choose our order. So on our turn, we were like, “what?… and then we just went away because we obviously didn’t understand their policy. We waited long to be entertained but still nothing. We moved to another restaurant, frustrated as we were, we went to this Chinese restaurant. And even if we don’t really like their Chinese noodles we have to get them as we were so hungry at that time. The waitress cannot speak English and it takes a while before they finally figured out our order.
After we eat, we walk around. Imagine walking in a big airport with a cranky toddler without a stroller? It was hard, very hard! We tried to find an empty chair but there’s no vacancy. And then we found this small cafe. We went there. Ordered some snacks. Lying down baby girl on the wide chair to sleep. She sleeps there for an hour. It was lucky that the cafe just let us stay there even if we don’t eat anymore. We are so tired and sleepy at that time. I even wish I can lie down there and sleep. It was so hard!
It was a long day waiting and waiting for our next flight. It didn’t end that way because our flight was delayed and we need to wait until 11 pm for our flights to Manila. Really unfortunate. No one told us that the flights were delayed. It was only displayed on the screen that the time has moved. Again, we waited for at least another three hours. It is very hard for a toddler to handle these kinds of things. While waiting for the delayed flight, we put the baby girl on the big luggage stroller and lie her down to sleep. She slept there the whole time which was a good thing. They said the flight was delayed due to bad weather. That time it was raining so hard.
I felt so relieved when we’re inside the plane. I don’t care if we missed our connecting flights to Cagayan de Oro as long as we’re flying to Manila now. And this whole Beijing thing is over. We stayed at Beijing airport from 7 am until 11:30 in the evening. We wasted our time there instead of having a city tour. We could have visited so many places already. It was so sad and such a nightmare.
I have heard before that traveling in China is very difficult if you don’t speak the language! I hope to go someday, but I know I’ll have to be the main communicator because my husband doesn’t speak Mandarin.