October 18th: Mongolia - via Beijing

Another Saturday evening and another trip to Vienna's airport for yet another duty trip. It was a cool evening with a bit of rain but I decided to take a cab as I had a case this trip. As the weather in Bejing was cool and Ulaan Bataar was downright freezing I felt that a few extra clothes might be a good idea.

At the airport  I arrived a bit early so had plenty of time to take in a restorative Bloody Mary in the airline Senator lounge before heading off to the gate lounge. This was already prettty crowded  and before long we weer being asked if we would give up a Business Class seat for an economy class seat and 800 euros. This was soon followed by an offer of any economy class passenger  willing to take  750 euro cash refund and a trip on the next day's plane. It seemed that we were not going anywhere until a brave soul "walked the plank". I was travelling with another member of the agency staff and whilst we were tempted to help, the thought of all the paper work to explain things later plus the issue of what to do with the cash  made us keep quiet.

Anyway some brave soul eventually put up a hand and we finally we boarded our ageing Boeing 767 and found it had the "new" Austrian Business Class seats. These turned out to feel narrower and shorter but with more gadgets and buttons, a retrograde step in my book especially as they were certainly less comfortable for anyone over 1m 75 in height we agreed.

The on board chef  got into his uniform and we had a good meal with nice wines; but the entertainment system is still very old fashioned with all the movies running at set times and no chance to see a proper menu on screen or start and stop films at will, as you seem to be able to do everywhere else nowadays.

Anyway, 9 hours or so later we hit Bejing and the new  terminal built for the Olympic Games. All very smart and super efficient - a great improvement on the old place I had seen in 2006, now it is very clean and well organised.

My travelling chum had booked the hotel so we got a cab and headed off.

Bejing Airport Expressway

Beijing traffic is still pretty bad but a 60+ minute ride cost us  less than 25 euros which seemed to be pretty good value for two. We were dropped off on the wrong side of the street and then found oour way, eventually, across the road and into the hotel. Not real big on English language skills but friendly and they took VISA so what more could we want? The rooms were quiet, clean and quite large suites in fact all for $75 US per night with breakfast! Sadly we would have to forgo breakfast as our flight toi Ulaan Bataar would require a 0500 departure from the hotel.

The view from my room shows the crowds on the street.

A quick wash and we were off for the  1mile stroll to Tianamen Square as my chum had not been to the city before. It was very windy with lots of dust in the air and bits coming down off the tress all the time. The place was pretty crowded as it was a weekend after the national day so heaps of internal tourists and barriers everywhere to control pedestrians.

 

Tianamen Square

Flower gardens at the side of Tianamen Square

Anyway we wandered around and  decided to walk back around the rear of the palace gardens. The people in the courtyard of the palace  were shoulder to shoulder so we hand long since abandoned any idea of going inside-next time perhaps.

Anyway it was an interesting walk with some different views and  few other foreigners  until we got back to the hotel.

We chnaged some money and then sat down for a Tsing Tao Beer or two. A quick rest again and then a stroll around to a local restaurant with only a picture menu  but the meal was good and pretty cheap by Vienna standards. And then back to the rooms before 9 pm to get some sleep before the early exit.