Thursday 3rd November 2016
Related posts: Short trip to Beijing Part 1, Part 2
Today is our official event with the Prime Minister. We waited for the PM at Beijing South Railway Station. It’s the largest station in Beijing, and apparently one of the largest in Asia too.
The PM was scheduled to ride the high speed train to Tianjin, visit the mayor, witness the signing of an agreement, and then return to Beijing.
It was my first time taking China’s HSR. I’ve taken the Japanese shinkansen and Korea’s HSR previously, both are impressive, and during this trip I get to see China’s public transport jewel. The finishing looks decent, but not comparable to the Japanese or Korean.
In Tianjin, we followed the Prime Minister for a visit to the Tianjin State Guest House where he was received by the mayor. Later the PM witnessed the signing on an MOU on a seawater desalination and salt making project. The press report on this event is available here.
In the evening, we had dinner at Dong Lai Shun, a well known halal hot pot restaurant in Beijing. A Malaysian compatriot from PM’s entourage, Datuk Goh Hin San (the Chairman of Han Culture Centre Malaysia), recommended us the place. It was an interesting experience for all of us!
Friday 4th November 2016
Our flight back to Malaysia is later in the afternoon. I woke up early, and went to the gym for quick workout. The gym is by far one of the best gyms that I’ve seen at a hotel.
The gym has a nice view of the city, but unfortunately, the haze was worse than the day I arrived! The Air Quality Index (AQI) wash 310 and visibility was really bad! Compare that with the view of the city when AQI was 185 (refer to previous blogpost here).
After that, I went to check out the swimming pool. Did a few laps before going up for breakfast.
In the afternoon, our local host took us for lunch at Dadong Roast Duck restaurant. It is one of the well known peking duck restaurants in Beijing. The restaurant had an impressive deco.
As the food is served, the chef came out and put on a show by slicing the roasted duck in front of your table. And most importantly, the food was fantastic!
After the sumptuous lunch, we rushed to the airport for our flight to back home. Our flight back to Malaysia was:
Beijing to Hong Kong
Airline: Air China CA6115
Depart: 3:30PM, Arrive: 7:00PM
Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur
Airline: Cathay Pacific CX791
Depart: 8:20PM, Arrive: 12:15AM
After the delayed luggage incident (on arrival), I thought I could go home trouble-free. As you can see from above, the connecting time in Hong Kong is 1 hour 20 minutes. I thought that was sufficient for us to continue to the second leg. What I didn’t factor in, was the delay from Beijing. Our Air China flight was delayed by 40 minutes and with that, we missed our connecting flight in Hong Kong.
As we arrived in Hong Kong, we were greeted by a Cathay Pacific staff that briefed us on our situation. He was polite enough to apologise (the flight was code share with Cathay), and rescheduled our flight to tomorrow, and compensated us with a 1 night hotel stay at Auberge Discovery Hotel near the airport. However, we couldn’t retrieve our luggage as it will be transferred automatically to our flight tomorrow. This is the second time during this trip where I’m separated from my luggage!
We arrived at the hotel around 8:30PM. We explored the area and had dinner at a nearby restaurant. It’s actually a nice touristy area. It’s ideal if you plan to go to Disneyland.
The next day, we left the hotel at 5AM the next morning so I didn’t get to see the building in daylight. The return flight to Kuala Lumpur was uneventful, thank God for that.
Related posts: Short trip to Beijing Part 1, Part 2
Imran Jaafar 