"Treasures of Cruising the World" with Bill & Mary Ann: Report #53 Tianjin (Beijing), China The Start of the Overland Adventure February 22, 2017 Wednesday Cloudy & 28 degrees Part #1 Of 2 78 Pictures

Maybe it was the anticipation of our trip today, or it was the decadent chocolate dessert that finished our meal, but one of us did not sleep a wink last night. Sort of forgot that rich, dark chocolate has that effect……like drinking 10 pots of coffee.

Off course, this was a port day, even though we had arrived last night, no one was allowed off of the ship until today. Getting up early, we went to breakfast at 7:30am and were soon joined by Barb and eventually, Martha. Knowing that we will be gone for eight days, they wanted spend some time with us. Nice.

The first call for the immigrations check in the terminal was around 8:30am for the people with the "S" letter. That applied to Barb and us. Although we could go at any time, we thought it best to get this over with. The line started on deck three in the atrium, where we exited the ship by having our cards scanned like normal. Once we entered the covered gangway, they scanned the cards again.

But before we left the ship, Henk came over and congratulated us for our successful bid to get a daily delivery of the NY Times Digest. Having had a short conversation with Orlando and Gerald, we asked for this service to be a perk for the President's Club members. At least those of our group that wanted the paper. They must have agreed and put this in writing to Henk, the hotel director. We figured our only hope to get this to work, was to keep the request for a small group. Nice to know they listened.

Back at the immigrations check. Yesterday we had been given copies of our passports, which had to be stamped along with our passport books. Since we will be going overland, we needed to keep them with us.

Following the crowd into the terminal, we ended up in the slowest line of all. There must have been ten lines. Originally, there was supposed to be a "zero" count, where no one was allowed back on the ship until everyone was seen. Guess they changed their minds on that one.

There was mass confusion with the passengers who were going on all day trips or overlands, either with HAL shore excursions or independently. Some were not sure they needed to bring everything off with them, so half of their group was ready to go, but others were not. At this rate, the 10 to 12 hour tours will not get back to the ship until midnight.

Now what we did not expect was the fact that the snow, ice, and fog had closed the only highway from Beijing to Tianjin last night. Even though our driver was not showing up until 10am, we thought we better get our things, and search for him.

Something really bad must have happened with the plumbing on the ship, because all of the toilets had been shut off. Not only in the rooms, but also the public ones. Good time for us to be leaving. We were allowed to bypass the lines, and go directly down the escalator to the lower terminal. We did see a few drivers holding signs with names, but none of them were ours.

Finally, right outside the building, we saw our driver waiting in the freezing parking lot. He had gotten there after a 4 hour drive on country roads at 3am in the morning. He said the highway had been closed since 10:30pm last night, but he knew all of the side roads to get there from Beijing. He was not sure if the road had opened up yet, but he made the decision to head that way after checking with his GSP system.

The only vehicles on the road from the pier were a few cars and the tour buses. Actually this new terminal is located in the middle of nowhere…..far from everything. It was built on acres of landfill that went on for miles. Thousands of trees had been planted there. Eventually, we began coming upon new housing tracts and factories with power plants. This entire area has been built up since the 2008 Summer Olympics, when the worst of the polluting plants and factories had to be moved away from the city of Beijing. Needless to say, the quality of air is pretty bad here. When we watched the sun come up, it was like a ball of orange fire in a misty haze.

We were moving along fine, when we came to a dead stop, surrounded with big rigs, buses, and some cars. Seems that the highway was still closed at the toll gates. We ended up sitting there for over 45 minutes, before the traffic began to move again. Our driver was most happy, because he said that sometimes, the highways close for a whole day this time of year, with no alternate routes.

That's when he began to drive aggressively, and we made our way around all the buses and trucks, getting into the city of Beijing in 2 hours time. At another toll booth, we went through a police check point, where our driver had to show ID. If he had not been a citizen of Beijing, he would not be allowed into the city. Things are quite different here than back in the states.

Heading across town towards the Shangri-La Hotel, he took us past all of the important sights in Beijing. We passed the Imerial Palace with the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Mao's Mausoleum, museums,and the built-up city with hotels and modern malls. Sure has changed since we were here 15 years ago. The area of the city where massive high rise banks are now built is most impressive. We even went past the Beijing Hotel where we spent one night while touring the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs, and the sights of Beijing.

Our destination was the Shangri-La Hotel, a little more out of the center of town. With the help from our driver, we were checked in, and in our spacious room by 1pm. We went to lunch in the hotel's café, and ordered a margarita pizza and local beer…..Tsing Tao. Perfect.

We spent the afternoon trying to figure out the internet. Having trouble with Google, we went down to the front desk to ask about it. What a surprise to find out that Google and Facebook are blocked here. For that reason, we won't be able to post everything like we have been doing. We will simply keep the reports going, then send photos later.

At least we have TV back, and figured out how to get stations in English. We went to the same café for dinner, and ordered two hamburgers with fries. Needing a little something sweet, we shared a light chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. The food was expensive in the hotel, like anywhere else you go. But we know it is safe to eat, and we get free bottles of water in our room.

Tomorrow we meet with our driver at 9:30am for an hour ride to the airport, so we will be up early, and enjoy a good breakfast before we leave. At least that is included.

Bill & Mary Ann

Tianjin International Cruise Home Port