Arrival in Beijing!

It was 9 a.m. when I arrived in Peking and I didn’t knew what to expect.
First of all the journey started well in Amsterdam where I had to pay a fine of 155 Euro, because my suitcases were to heavy…
The flight went well however.
When I left the airport and stood in the open-air I had expected much more smog, were everybody was talking about. However this is not the case and in the center of Beijing there is also not much smog.
When I asked a Chinese person if it is always like this, he said: ‘well not always, it has’nt been as clean as it now is for years. So I think I’m just lucky.
The weather here is warm, the 2 days I have been here it was around 35 degrees and due to the bit of smog it keeps hanging till late in the night.

The taxi drove me to the hotel where I will be staying for my semester here, and when I tried to check-in my name was not on the list.
People that know me somewhat better could imagine how I felt at that moment. However I controlled my emotions and stayed calm and friendly and explained in English that I had reserved and paid everything. Then I came to know that the people of the reception don’t speak any English.. So in my best ‘Chinese’ (the book I got from Davey at my party) the puzzle was solved after half an hour

After unpacking my bags I walked around the area where I live(Haidian district) and actually everything I need is in minutes walking distance.
A hypermarket is located next to my hotel, so everything I should need I can buy there
And everywhere in Beijing there are small restaurants where you can eat food for almost no money.

In the night I made an appointment to meet with other students that are here too and we met at the campus of Peking University. I walked a small round around campus and it is really huge. I think it is just as big or even bigger than the village where I used to live. After that I met the people where I was going to hang out with. I really amazed that people come from all over the world and everyone is friendly and hospitable.
First we ate some noodles in a restaurant what costs nothing. We paid about 3 Euro’s for a bowl of noodlesoup. However not a bowl like in Holland, this bowl was comparable to a bowl where Dutch people put the fruit in. So really huge!

After that we went to the club to drink something and discover the nightlife in Beijing.
You are really a kind of strange happening for the Chinese people here, some are really staring at you. Just as they have never seen an European of American person before. The same happens when I walk on the streets. The prices in the pubs and clubs are also a bit strange. A beer costs 40 Yuan and a cocktail or some mixture is also around the 40 Yuan (5 Euro). That was a bit of a surprise for me compared to Holland. Where the beer is twice as cheap as a mixture. After a while it was time to go home and when I got out of the club something happened…

But what you will read the next time;)

Bye bye for now!