Going To Beijing Solo Effort

I had two days off coming up in a week and I wanted to try something. I had Friday and Saturday off and did not have to teach until early Sunday afternoon. I wanted to go to Beijing by myself and do everything by myself buy the train tickets, make the hotel reservation and everything else that goes with it. When you don't speak Chinese this is a lot to undertake but I wanted to try. You also have to be a little creative in order to do this in China. First off I recruited a security guard at the community that I lived at in Handan to help me out. I had my friend write me a few notes one for the train tickets saying I want to go to Beijing Xi and the other for the taxicab saying I want to go to Handan East railway station. I had that all taken care of and I was almost set. I made my hotel reservation online and printed out directions to the hotel from the railway station off the website. 

I left Friday morning and felt confident and ready for my adventure. I flagged a taxi and showed him my note and I was on my way to the railway station. I took a G-train to Beijing which is the new magnetic railway line in China traveling at speeds up to 185 MPH. I got to Beijing in 2 hours from Handan. I arrived at Beijing and was ready to go step out of the station and I could not find a taxi and I had no idea where to look in this massive station. So I went to what appeared to be an information desk. I asked them about a taxi and showed them my note they looked at the note and started thumbing through this big book they had. All of a sudden one of the gentlemen nodded his head and gestured to me to follow him. I followed him for about what seemed to be at least a half a mile walk. We arrived at a bus stop. This gentleman worked for the city bus I did not want a bus but I couldn't help it now. He then asks someone to assist me with what stop to get off at and to help me get to my hotel. I thought this was amazing and many people wanted to help me. Finally some young woman was selected to help me. And she was so excited to help me. She spoke some English and she just loved having little conversations with me. Where are you from? What do you do in China? And a few other questions. The bus ride took so long though it was over an hour and I thought my hotel was close to the railway station. On the map it looked really close. It must have been the bumper to bumper traffic the whole way to my stop that was the cause for the excessively long trip. Beijing has some of the worst traffic in the whole world. After we get off the bus the woman walks me all the way to my hotel entrance and even assists me at the check-in. If you are interested in being a link on my blog or if you would like information on teaching jobs in China contact me here at tanukichamptranslation@gmail.com