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Arrived in Beijing

A short departure from NYU (my last post) is Beijing. My flights back over were moderately delayed but otherwise passable, a sure sign that I’ve crossed the Pacific too much (three times, but once might have been enough). I got back late on Monday night, barely made it to campus before the public transport switched over to night mode, and suffered for two days stubbornly trying to get over the lag. HK is really chilly lately… not much warmer than Beijing, so far.

Had a moderate adventure yesterday flying out of Shenzhen. I was stuck in traffic on the HK side for about an hour on the bus to Sheung Shui, but the crossing itself was faster than a normal weekend crossing: probably a combination of overstaffing and crossing on the holiday instead of the day before. The Y20 airport bus (and waiting in line) were worth it… the airport’s really far from Luohu. It’s big, and pretty modern (except for the squat toilets), and the inflated prices for food don’t look too bad if you’re coming from Hong Kong. There’s a cross-airline e-ticket self-check-in (genius!)—this probably works since all the airlines are part of CAAC. Met up with Betsy there, ate, killed time, boarded. I guess we were delayed a while on the tarmac but I was too tired to care that much. The Hainan Airlines (HU) flight was on a pretty new 737-800, and since I got on quickly enough to claim overhead space I was actually fine for legroom in coach. Dinner and two beverages served: I had chicken, it was about what I’d expect from a Chinese airline meal.

Beijing’s airport is relatively free of taxi touts, etc. I caught the Y16 shuttle bus #2 to Xidan Aviation Hall and a cab (with the help of some phoning for directions) for Y16 from there to my hostel, Red Lantern House. I’m in a 4 bed dorm. It’s a little noisy but decent so far, with slightly softer beds than LN (read: hard). They’ve done amazing things with their courtyard/restaurant area: hopefully my pictures come out, but it looks really nice. There are a few other Lingnanians in Beijing right now but I think I’m the only one with fully-working texting, so it looks like I’m (at least mostly) on my own for a few days.

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