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De l'aéroport vers Wudaokou le quartier étudiant
La pollution? Fog?
The view, the fog?
I was coming from Tokyo by plane when I arrived in Beijing, on February 24th evening, around midnight. Some comparison points are to be noticed.
View on Tokyo: I could recognize some districts from the sky, it was very clear !
View from the sky on Beijing: the atmosphere didn't seem "pure", the sky was a kind of "filigrane", not cloudy but "smog", so couldn't see much about the city. A question of weather, pollution ?
看風景，看污染
Clear view of Tokyo - No view of Beijing
Les formules de politesses
Polite small talks
When going through the customs, in Japan it would be : "Thank you for your visit". In Beijing, I showed to the "guards" the little paper filled with attention for the entrance clearance etc. I was really happy to arrive in China, and I was expecting a "Welcome to China" or something like this. No way, the guy just made a sign for me to pass, and not to bother anymore.
禮貌
Customs in Beijing, the "Welcome to China" is already written above, so no need for the civil servants to say it...
Faire la queue ? Non c'est survival mode!
Queuing? No way, here it is survival mode !
Ok, that's a little thing. The youth hostel we booked in the Haidian district adviced us to take the shuttle bus n° 5 from the airport, and then from the terminus, to take a taxi for 10 yuans. I see the so-called shuttle, and try to do the queue to then buy a ticket in the bus and go in. No one comes to tell you "you should buy the ticket in the aiport hall"...(maybe also because I have a Chinese face...). You will be just stopped by the control-girl of the bus, and see the bus leaving in front of your helpless eyes. I go back into the hall, to buy the bus ticket. Of course, you don't know the price, so you would like to ask (with a little bit of stress from not being used to speak Mandarin...). So I'm waiting in line to be able to ask and buy the ticket. But in fact, everybody is just arriving at the counter with the right amount of money and buying the ticket in front of your eyes. I'm starting to get fustrated, so I act just like them and try to ask boldly the price to the salesgirl : "16 yuans - Shi2liu4 kuai", she answered me, with a very deep Beijing accent in the tongue, even if she noticed I am not local-Chinese. At last I got my ticket!
排队?這些字不存在，這裡只有Survival方式！
"Typical" toll booth
Se faire un peu arnaquer
To be cheated a little bit
Ok, after 15 minutes of time lost, I am in the bus ! With my big bag at my side, because if you don't get off at the terminus, you can't put the bag in the "soute". I was going in fact to get off at the last stop, but as I didn't understand, I kept it with me. 40 minutes later, I arrived in the shuttle bus station in the Haidian district (the universities district). Unfortunately, all the taxis that were waiting there are already taken so quickly by all the Chinese ! To be left is a non very official taxi, that make me pay the course 22 yuans: "ARNAQUE totale"! the youth hostel was just 3 minutes far by car from the bus station ! Grrr !
被人骗。。。
The Youth Hostel near the Tsinghua University
Ouf, c'est fini !
At last, all of this is finished for today!
Hopefully, the girls of the hostel were quite kind, even at this very late time of arrival. Also, a good sleep and the expectation of seeing again the friends of the program the next day, with the expectation to live in a foreign country for several months made me put things into perspective. Other "tell-my-life" later !
今天這些小小的驚喜結束了