Setting Foot On Chinese Soil For The First Time

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  Tianjin, Tianjin, China
Wednesday, November 24, 2010

The flight was a long and boring one, 6 and a half hours. From the flight, I could see that Tianjin was typically an Industrial City with heavy and light industrial townships being built almost everywhere.



The flight touched down as per schedule. At 2.40 pm, we were already out of the flight and were on our way to the immigration counters. It was really sunny outside and I was wondering if it would feel even slightly cold.



After the immigration clearance and the baggage collected, we arrived at the lobby with the tour guide standing with the company name, D'Holidays. Luckily I had printed the voucher which indicated which tour company else I would have missed this guy. I was expecting a board with my name on it, like the usual tours. 

 



Then there were something like around 12 people gathering around this guy. Only then did I know that 10 other people were also on board the same flight from various parts of Malaysia, mostly Johor Bahru. In fact, I think we were the only ones from Kuala Lumpur. Once we identified this guy, we had to register our names with the list that he had. Then he mentioned that we needed to wait a little while longer for the bus to arrive.

  


 

Meanwhile, we had gone out casually just to see what the weather feels like. Only then did I realize that I made a great mistake by assuming it would not be cold. Despite the sun, the temperature outside was 3 degrees Celsius. Immediately, we ran in and wore our winter suits and then we came out again to take some photos here at the Binhai International Airport in Tianjin.


 


 

Shortly thereafter, the tour guide called us in and guided us to one floor above, must be the arrivals level where we got onto the coach heading to Beijing. I was told that the journey would take around two hours via the highway.


 

 

 
 
The scenery along the way was beautiful. This is my first experience with Autumn and Winter, as this was the migratory period between seasons. There was so much preparation going on along the streets for winter. By 4.50 pm, it was already dark and it seemed like it was 9pm in Malaysia.


 

 

Their highways were simply marvelous, much better than those in Malaysia. Some places, the highways were running 6 parallel lanes. It did take me a while to digest the fact that China practices the left hand drive. I kept looking for oncoming traffic on my right. Hehehehe. All along the way, I did not even sleep a while, the sceneries were too good to be missed. 

Looking forward to a similar scenery in Beijing as well.

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