- Beijing Capital International Airport -
Yes. After a very long planning at last I have arrived in Beijing, China. The moment I stepped out of the plane into the terminal I felt a sense of relief and that everything was going to be okay from there onwards..
The weather was freezing cold. It was minus 2 degrees Celsius. As I walked into the terminal of Beijing Capital International Airport I felt a sense of urgency. I was looking for a toilet!
Well the truth is this, every time whenever I got on a plane, right after take off I would rarely move around let alone walking up to go to the toilet. It was like all system jammed when I was in the air. So in other words during the 5 and half hours flight last night, I never got up out of my seat to go anywhere.
Luckily the airport was well planned and not as confusing as any other airports around the world. The signs are all big in size for all to see and the direction was very accurate.
So getting to the toilet wasn’t that hard to find and it was clean too and very spacious. Then it was back to walking towards the Immigration counter.
Again my mind was racing and heart was pounding. I didn’t know why. But I knew that my passport was 7 months to expire and my Chinese visa allowed me to enter China before the 8th of February 2008. So I had nothing to worry about. As I was presenting my passport to the Immigration officer, I realised that …
I was right! It went on smoothly. Not a problem at all. But why shouldn’t it be? I was a legitimate visitor to the country and I was on a legitimate visit. Perhaps it was the overwhelming feeling being in a country with a totally different ruling system and having a reputation of being strict on rules and regulations made me a liitle nervous.
Being a Malaysian I couldn’t help but remembering the recent case of a Malaysian woman who I believe hailed from the state of Kelantan, Malaysia who was convicted of drug trafficking in China and apparently she had been convicted and sentenced to death. It is such a sad story to hear but being a lawyer myself I am fully aware and understand of the implication of breaking the laws especially of a foreign country and especially over drugs. Even if the lady was caught in Malaysia instead, she would certainly be receiving the same sentence upon conviction. The way I see it as a lawyer I always believe that the law has no mercy on anybody. Be that as it may my prayers and doa’ goes to the lady who is now I believe is in prison somewhere here.
So as I picked up my baggage, my associate and I headed out towards the Custom check point. We had nothing to declare although I was a bit cautious as I'd brought with me a one month supply of nutritious drink made out of fruits and vegetables. Well it was always better to be cautious, I thought. I strolled my trolley of bags entering the no declaration custom check point and again it was very smooth. No checking at all.
I must say that so far that day upon arrival I was very impressed with the system around the airport especially in the aspect of cleanliness. It was so comfortable and you would automatically feel welcomed.
This time around we were approached by a few people asking us whether we would want to take taxi. This surprised me a bit as during my first visit before we were never approached by anyone. Maybe it is close to the Olympics 2008 and foreigners are expected to arrive.
I will tell more about taxis in Beijing later on but suffice to say that at the time of arrival we had already made arrangement to be picked up at the airport by our Chinese counterpart namely Ms. Hope. But she was nowhere to be seen at first when we both came out from the arrival hall and we were hoping for Ms Hope to come.
Not long after that after a few text messages I managed to locate her standing in front of the arrival hall. We both were very happy to meet each other at last after all the due process of planning and promising in our emails to each other. It was a pleasant beginning and as we walked out of the airport we took a taxi to go to our next destination which was … our hotel.
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Note: The weather was merciless. It was so cold beyond description. I wasn’t complaining in fact I really enjoyed being in this kind of weather. It was certainly below 0 degree Celsius. But it was also sad to note that during the winter season in Beijing, it was dry too, very very dry. It was hazy with dust that can only be seen on cars in black colour. Perhaps what they say about Beijing being one of the heaviest polluted cities in the world is so true. Factories churning out smoke during daytime are plenty and can be clearly seen around us. So my advise is … make sure you drink lot and lot of WATER.
