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Beijing, China
Considering timezones, I landed 26 hours after I took off, with no sleep to speak of.
Looking out the windows, it wasn’t possible to see very far. This must be one of the ‘bad’ smog days.
I remembered to take some pictures of the Airport terminal on the way to customs.
My employer was nice enough to arrange for me, a ride from the Beijing Airport to the Hotel."><meta name=author content="Gary Allen Vollink"><link rel=canonical href=https://blog.vollink.nyc/in-china/2007/10/welcome-to-beijing.../><link crossorigin=anonymous href=/assets/css/stylesheet.min.c30defa0e01dbe8f65cc43a70a58fbbc74cafc53a7f399e6a0af39088b9bcc16.css integrity="sha256-ww3voOAdvo9lzEOnClj7vHTK/FOn85nmoK85CIubzBY=" rel="preload stylesheet" as=style><script defer crossorigin=anonymous src=/assets/js/highlight.min.67ab6ccbad53232b614f9dbcbe19c8759e16f8552b23f5068b953ee70a6dd94f.js integrity="sha256-Z6tsy61TIythT528vhnIdZ4W+FUrI/UGi5U+5wpt2U8=" onload=hljs.initHighlightingOnLoad()></script>
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Beijing, China
Considering timezones, I landed 26 hours after I took off, with no sleep to speak of.
Looking out the windows, it wasn’t possible to see very far. This must be one of the ‘bad’ smog days.
I remembered to take some pictures of the Airport terminal on the way to customs.
My employer was nice enough to arrange for me, a ride from the Beijing Airport to the Hotel."><meta property="og:type" content="article"><meta property="og:url" content="https://blog.vollink.nyc/in-china/2007/10/welcome-to-beijing.../"><meta property="article:section" content="in-china"><meta property="article:published_time" content="2007-10-14T12:00:00+08:00"><meta property="article:modified_time" content="2007-10-14T12:00:00+08:00"><meta property="og:site_name" content="On My Mind..."><meta name=twitter:card content="summary"><meta name=twitter:title content="Welcome To Beijing..."><meta name=twitter:description content="October 13
Beijing, China
Considering timezones, I landed 26 hours after I took off, with no sleep to speak of.
Looking out the windows, it wasn’t possible to see very far. This must be one of the ‘bad’ smog days.
I remembered to take some pictures of the Airport terminal on the way to customs.
My employer was nice enough to arrange for me, a ride from the Beijing Airport to the Hotel."><script type=application/ld+json>{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"In China","item":"https://blog.vollink.nyc/in-china/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Welcome To Beijing...","item":"https://blog.vollink.nyc/in-china/2007/10/welcome-to-beijing.../"}]}</script><script type=application/ld+json>{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BlogPosting","headline":"Welcome To Beijing...","name":"Welcome To Beijing...","description":"October 13\nBeijing, China\nConsidering timezones, I landed 26 hours after I took off, with no sleep to speak of.\nLooking out the windows, it wasn\u0026rsquo;t possible to see very far. This must be one of the \u0026lsquo;bad\u0026rsquo; smog days.\nI remembered to take some pictures of the Airport terminal on the way to customs.\nMy employer was nice enough to arrange for me, a ride from the Beijing Airport to the Hotel.","keywords":["blog","in-china","history","work"],"articleBody":"October 13\nBeijing, China\nConsidering timezones, I landed 26 hours after I took off, with no sleep to speak of.\nLooking out the windows, it wasn’t possible to see very far. This must be one of the ‘bad’ smog days.\nI remembered to take some pictures of the Airport terminal on the way to customs.\nMy employer was nice enough to arrange for me, a ride from the Beijing Airport to the Hotel. A very nice gentleman who didn’t speak any English but “This way”, “Please” and “Thank you” was holding a sign with my name once I got past customs into the main area.\nHe grabbed two of my three bags, and started walking me towards where he parked the van. As we left the Airport, there was a certain smell. It was not particularly strong, but it was particularly industrial. I couldn’t smell it after an hour, and only notice it now for a minute or two after walking outside. I imagine after another day, I probably won’t notice it at all.\nWe got to the Hotel van (a Buick minivan), and he started driving. Merging - I notice immediately is a factor of who’s front bumper is in the space first. It seems to be the responsibility of the slightly slower person to slow down more to let in the more aggressive driver. Even out of the toll gate where several lanes have to merge all at once. I didn’t get a picture of that though. I did get a picture of the Beijing Ikea store, an MG dealership and a glimpse of the Olympic Stadium.\nI got here, and the service was very good, but even the English speaking front desk staff were very difficult to understand. They had to repeat themselves several times while explaining to me the various charges they were putting on my credit card. The housekeeping staff said hi to me, but I had a very, very hard time understanding what they were asking me to do. They were all patient with me (Cultural training note: In China, it is considered the listener’s responsibility to understand, not the speaker’s responsibility to clarify), and I eventually did what they needed me to do (sign an inventory form).\nI took several pictures of the hotel room, and a close-up of the TV and DVD player remotes. I unpacked, used every hanger in the room - and almost all of the drawer and shelf space. I called my wife, and Emailed several people (after getting my laptop connected), and finally went to bed around 9PM local time.\n","wordCount":"432","inLanguage":"en","datePublished":"2007-10-14T12:00:00+08:00","dateModified":"2007-10-14T12:00:00+08:00","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Gary Allen Vollink"},"mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://blog.vollink.nyc/in-china/2007/10/welcome-to-beijing.../"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"On My Mind...","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://blog.vollink.nyc/favicon.ico"}}}</script></head><body id=top><script>localStorage.getItem("pref-theme")==="dark"?document.body.classList.add("dark"):localStorage.getItem("pref-theme")==="light"?document.body.classList.remove("dark"):window.matchMedia("(prefers-color-scheme: dark)").matches&&document.body.classList.add("dark")</script><header class=header><nav class=nav><div class=logo><a href=https://blog.vollink.nyc/ accesskey=h title="Home (Alt + H)"><img src=https://blog.vollink.nyc/AllenWrench.gif alt=logo aria-label=logo height=35>Home</a>
<span class=logo-switches><button id=theme-toggle accesskey=t title="(Alt + T)"><svg id="moon" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentcolor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"><path d="M21 12.79A9 9 0 1111.21 3 7 7 0 0021 12.79z"/></svg><svg id="sun" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentcolor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="5"/><line x1="12" y1="1" x2="12" y2="3"/><line x1="12" y1="21" x2="12" y2="23"/><line x1="4.22" y1="4.22" x2="5.64" y2="5.64"/><line x1="18.36" y1="18.36" x2="19.78" y2="19.78"/><line x1="1" y1="12" x2="3" y2="12"/><line x1="21" y1="12" x2="23" y2="12"/><line x1="4.22" y1="19.78" x2="5.64" y2="18.36"/><line x1="18.36" y1="5.64" x2="19.78" y2="4.22"/></svg></button></span></div><ul id=menu><li><a href=https://blog.vollink.nyc/post/ title=Posts><span>Posts</span></a></li><li><a href=https://blog.vollink.nyc/tags/ title=Tags><span>Tags</span></a></li><li><a href=https://blog.vollink.nyc/in-china/ title="In China"><span>In China</span></a></li><li><a href=https://home.vollink.com/ title=home.vollink.com><span>home.vollink.com</span></a></li></ul></nav></header><main class=main><article class=post-single><header class=post-header><div class=breadcrumbs><a href=https://blog.vollink.nyc/>Home</a> » <a href=https://blog.vollink.nyc/in-china/>In China</a></div><h1 class=post-title>Welcome To Beijing...</h1><div class=post-meta><span title="2007-10-14 12:00:00 +0800 +0800">14 Oct 2007</span> · 3 min · Gary Allen Vollink</div></header><div class=post-content><p>October 13</p><p>Beijing, China</p><p>Considering timezones, I landed 26 hours after I took off, with no sleep
to speak of.</p><p>Looking out the windows, it wasn’t possible to see very far. This must
be one of the ‘bad’ smog days.</p><p>I remembered to take some pictures of the Airport terminal on the way to
customs.</p><p>My employer was nice enough to arrange for me, a ride from the Beijing
Airport to the Hotel. A very nice gentleman who didn’t speak any English
but “This way”, “Please” and “Thank you” was holding a sign with my name
once I got past customs into the main area.</p><p>He grabbed two of my three bags, and started walking me towards where he
parked the van. As we left the Airport, there was a certain smell. It
was not particularly strong, but it was particularly industrial. I
couldn’t smell it after an hour, and only notice it now for a minute or
two after walking outside. I imagine after another day, I probably
won’t notice it at all.</p><p>We got to the Hotel van (a Buick minivan), and he started
driving. Merging - I notice immediately is a factor of who’s front
bumper is in the space first. It seems to be the responsibility of
the slightly slower person to slow down more to let in the more
aggressive driver. Even out of the toll gate where several lanes
have to merge all at once. I didn’t get a picture of that
though. I did get a picture of the Beijing Ikea store, an MG
dealership and a glimpse of the Olympic Stadium.</p><p>I got here, and the service was very good, but even the English
speaking front desk staff were very difficult to understand. They
had to repeat themselves several times while explaining to me the
various charges they were putting on my credit card. The
housekeeping staff said hi to me, but I had a very, very hard time
understanding what they were asking me to do. They were all
patient with me (Cultural training note: In China, it is considered
the listener’s responsibility to understand, not the speaker’s
responsibility to clarify), and I eventually did what they
needed me to do (sign an inventory form).</p><p>I took several pictures of the hotel room, and a close-up of the
TV and DVD player remotes. I unpacked, used every hanger in the
room - and almost all of the drawer and shelf space. I called my
wife, and Emailed several people (after getting my laptop
connected), and finally went to bed around 9PM local time.</p></div><footer class=post-footer><ul class=post-tags><li><a href=https://blog.vollink.nyc/tags/blog/>blog</a></li><li><a href=https://blog.vollink.nyc/tags/in-china/>in-china</a></li><li><a href=https://blog.vollink.nyc/tags/history/>history</a></li><li><a href=https://blog.vollink.nyc/tags/work/>work</a></li></ul><div class=share-buttons><a target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="share Welcome To Beijing... on twitter" href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet/?text=Welcome%20To%20Beijing...&url=https%3a%2f%2fblog.vollink.nyc%2fin-china%2f2007%2f10%2fwelcome-to-beijing...%2f&hashtags=blog%2cin-china%2chistory%2cwork"><svg viewBox="0 0 512 512"><path d="M449.446.0C483.971.0 512 28.03 512 62.554v386.892C512 483.97 483.97 512 449.446 512H62.554c-34.524.0-62.554-28.03-62.554-62.554V62.554c0-34.524 28.029-62.554 62.554-62.554h386.892zM195.519 424.544c135.939.0 210.268-112.643 210.268-210.268.0-3.218.0-6.437-.153-9.502 14.406-10.421 26.973-23.448 36.935-38.314-13.18 5.824-27.433 9.809-42.452 11.648 15.326-9.196 26.973-23.602 32.49-40.92-14.252 8.429-30.038 14.56-46.896 17.931-13.487-14.406-32.644-23.295-53.946-23.295-40.767.0-73.87 33.104-73.87 73.87.0 5.824.613 11.494 1.992 16.858-61.456-3.065-115.862-32.49-152.337-77.241-6.284 10.881-9.962 23.601-9.962 37.088.0 25.594 13.027 48.276 32.95 61.456-12.107-.307-23.448-3.678-33.41-9.196v.92c0 35.862 25.441 65.594 59.311 72.49-6.13 1.686-12.72 2.606-19.464 2.606-4.751.0-9.348-.46-13.946-1.38 9.349 29.426 36.628 50.728 68.965 51.341-25.287 19.771-57.164 31.571-91.8 31.571-5.977.0-11.801-.306-17.625-1.073 32.337 21.15 71.264 33.41 112.95 33.41z"/></svg></a><a target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="share Welcome To Beijing... on linkedin" href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3a%2f%2fblog.vollink.nyc%2fin-china%2f2007%2f10%2fwelcome-to-beijing...%2f&title=Welcome%20To%20Beijing...&summary=Welcome%20To%20Beijing...&source=https%3a%2f%2fblog.vollink.nyc%2fin-china%2f2007%2f10%2fwelcome-to-beijing...%2f"><svg viewBox="0 0 512 512"><path d="M449.446.0C483.971.0 512 28.03 512 62.554v386.892C512 483.97 483.97 512 449.446 512H62.554c-34.524.0-62.554-28.03-62.554-62.554V62.554c0-34.524 28.029-62.554 62.554-62.554h386.892zM160.461 423.278V197.561h-75.04v225.717h75.04zm270.539.0V293.839c0-69.333-37.018-101.586-86.381-101.586-39.804.0-57.634 21.891-67.617 37.266v-31.958h-75.021c.995 21.181.0 225.717.0 225.717h75.02V297.222c0-6.748.486-13.492 2.474-18.315 5.414-13.475 17.767-27.434 38.494-27.434 27.135.0 38.007 20.707 38.007 51.037v120.768H431zM123.448 88.722C97.774 88.722 81 105.601 81 127.724c0 21.658 16.264 39.002 41.455 39.002h.484c26.165.0 42.452-17.344 42.452-39.002-.485-22.092-16.241-38.954-41.943-39.002z"/></svg></a><a target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="share Welcome To Beijing... on reddit" href="https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3a%2f%2fblog.vollink.nyc%2fin-china%2f2007%2f10%2fwelcome-to-beijing...%2f&title=Welcome%20To%20Beijing..."><svg viewBox="0 0 512 512"><path d="M449.446.0C483.971.0 512 28.03 512 62.554v386.892C512 483.97 483.97 512 449.446 512H62.554c-34.524.0-62.554-28.03-62.554-62.554V62.554c0-34.524 28.029-62.554 62.554-62.554h386.892zM446 265.638c0-22.964-18.616-41.58-41.58-41.58-11.211.0-21.361 4.457-28.841 11.666-28.424-20.508-67.586-33.757-111.204-35.278l18.941-89.121 61.884 13.157c.756 15.734 13.642 28.29 29.56 28.29 16.407.0 29.706-13.299 29.706-29.701.0-16.403-13.299-29.702-29.706-29.702-11.666.0-21.657 6.792-26.515 16.578l-69.105-14.69c-1.922-.418-3.939-.042-5.585 1.036-1.658 1.073-2.811 2.761-3.224 4.686l-21.152 99.438c-44.258 1.228-84.046 14.494-112.837 35.232-7.468-7.164-17.589-11.591-28.757-11.591-22.965.0-41.585 18.616-41.585 41.58.0 16.896 10.095 31.41 24.568 37.918-.639 4.135-.99 8.328-.99 12.576.0 63.977 74.469 115.836 166.33 115.836s166.334-51.859 166.334-115.836c0-4.218-.347-8.387-.977-12.493 14.564-6.47 24.735-21.034 24.735-38.001zM326.526 373.831c-20.27 20.241-59.115 21.816-70.534 21.816-11.428.0-50.277-1.575-70.522-21.82-3.007-3.008-3.007-7.882.0-10.889 3.003-2.999 7.882-3.003 10.885.0 12.777 12.781 40.11 17.317 59.637 17.317 19.522.0 46.86-4.536 59.657-17.321 3.016-2.999 7.886-2.995 10.885.008 3.008 3.011 3.003 7.882-.008 10.889zm-5.23-48.781c-16.373.0-29.701-13.324-29.701-29.698.0-16.381 13.328-29.714 29.701-29.714 16.378.0 29.706 13.333 29.706 29.714.0 16.374-13.328 29.698-29.706 29.698zM160.91 295.348c0-16.381 13.328-29.71 29.714-29.71 16.369.0 29.689 13.329 29.689 29.71.0 16.373-13.32 29.693-29.689 29.693-16.386.0-29.714-13.32-29.714-29.693z"/></svg></a></div></footer></article></main><footer class=footer><span>© 2022 <a href=https://blog.vollink.nyc/>On My Mind...</a></span>
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