China Part XXII - Morning in Beijing

To paraphrase Gladys Knight and the Pips (and here is a fun parody of the Pips from American Idol):

'I'm leavin', oh yes I am, 

on that midnight train to Beijing.

Ooh ooh, Uh huh. 

On a one way ticket to, 
a place I never knew.

Uh huh, No No.

Oh, yes I am. I said I am.
I said I'm leavin' 

on that mid-night train to Beijing.
I want take in their world,
before I go back to mine.
Their world, my world,
mine and theirs and ours.
I've got to go. I've got to go..." 

So anyway (with apologies to Gladys) we  were finally on the sleeper train in our cramped little quarters, clean but not very comfortable, with the typical hard Chinese beds, a.k.a. a thin mat on a hard surface.

Oh, and did I say it was hot, or that smoking was allowed on the train. The Chinese seem to be big-time smokers. For those of us that don't smoke and just happened to end up in a top bunk, yikes! The smoke was so thick and heavy near the ceiling that sleeping was difficult and my sinuses were burning for hours before our arrival. The smoke, the heat, the hard beds, well, it all led to a pretty sleepless night.  

The train did have restrooms of both western style and the more typical Chinese style, the later being the type where you squat over a hole in the floor, which in this case, opened to the tracks below (not a favorite of a 94 year old great-grandma).
After a near sleepless night we began to see the the morning light. Then the sun rose in a hazy/smoggy morning sky.

 Once the sun was up we could get a glimpse of the Chinese countryside  whizzing past our window as we made our way toward the capitol.

We arrived at Beijing's largest train stations, 

Beijing West Station, where we  met with our new local guide who went by the name of Joan. In Beijing we were joined by the last members of our group (we had added more in Xi'an as well) so now we were now too many for just one bus. For our stay in Beijing we would be divided into two groups, on two separate buses, with two local guides, Joan and Henry. Henry had been with us from our first day in Guilin. Tfter making sure all of us were accounted for, they loaded us on to the buses and we drove through the city...

Beijing has a lot of very interesting architecture (more of which we will see later).

 This is the Beijing Children's Hospital.

 One of the Beijing Olympic venues.

to our home away from home, the Feitian Hotel Beijing. The Feitian is a 5 star business hotel located at No. 5, Guangqumenwai Nan Street (Southeast corner of Guangqumen Section of Second Ring Road), Feitian Hotel Beijing was built by the Gansu Provincial Government. The hotel is about 28 km away from Beijing Capital Airport, 3 km away from Beijing Railway Station and 10 km away from Beijing West Railway Station.

Not a terribly imposing or remarkable building from the outside but the lobby was quite impressive.

The lower part of the lobby had twin staircases leading to the main lobby upstairs and the front desk. There were huge art pieces hanging on the walls of the entry...

  

and a large impressive chandelier dominated the ceiling.

It hung over this fountain and statue.

 

 The unique grand hall displays the world-renowned Dunhuang Culture and time-honored Huanghe (Yellow River) Culture. Behind the large statue of a dancer which was the centerpiece of the fountain, was a glass waterfall which cascaded from beneath the landing where the two staircases met.

 

The source of that cascade was a glass covered stream that dissected and ran the length of the the main lobby on the second floor. At its source was an elaborately carved wooden dragon-like piece of sculpture spanning the stream. Made from the 'Divine Tree', a rare yellow camphor wood (see the panel below for the story). At the other end, at the top of the stairs was an equally impressive, elegantly carved bureau which sat on the glass covered stream.

 
Below is a photo of Camphor trees.

 Below is a video close-up of the carving.
 

 The main lobby was a large octagonal atrium about four stories high with a glass ceiling. The rest of the hotel towered 21 floors above. 

 

On one side of the glass covered stream was a waiting room on the other side was a dining area. An outer hallway circled the lobby off of which were located the front desk,

 

elevators, shops, computer room, elevators, a health-center/gym, a conference room,

restrooms and the kitchen for the dining area, more elevators and two restaurants, one western and one Chinese. On the second level above the main entrance was another restaurant featuring fine dining serving an array of international cuisines. There was also a teahouse, a bar and a coffeehouse. In addition to Cantonese cuisine, special western Chinese-style dishes were also available. There was some sort of delay in our checking in (I can't remember the details but we had to wait quite awhile, seems we arrived early and the rooms weren't yet available) so we waited, and waited, and waited in the lobby.

Bob inspected his money and Raylene wrote in her journal while we waited for our rooms.

 
In the hallway circling the lobby there were various niches containing works of art and historical objects.

 Below is a photo of the Giant Buddha at the Temple in Zhangye that the above 1/36th size miniature is a copy of.

Once we finally made it to our rooms...they were very nice. These were the softest beds that we had throughout our trip, but they were still not what we in the west are accustomed to.


 This was outside and around the backside of the hotel.

Up next:

Our first excursion in Beijing