Hitting head on wall – first day in China

The first day was for me like hitting head on the wall. Everything was against me … but from the beginning πŸ™‚

The first day of travel to Beijing, China

My trip started in Wroclaw (Poland) and took more than 1 day πŸ™‚ I started 2th of September and I went (by train) to Warsaw (Poland) where I had one-night accommodation at my cousin flat (thank you, cousin, for an accommodation).

I spend with him and his girlfriend a good afternoon in good Bar with Craft Beer, drinking and talking about travel.

PiwPaw – Warsaw, Poland
PiwPaw
PiwPaw – Warsaw, Poland
PiwPaw
PiwPaw – Warsaw, Poland

The second day of travel to Beijing, China

Early morning wake up and fast travel to a company who arranges a visa (remember to check day of expiration passport before you start applying for a visa πŸ™‚ ) to pick up my passport with visa. Last shopping in Poland before I go to the Airport.

Time to fly a little πŸ™‚
I start my flight in Warsaw (Poland) and I fly to Copenhagen (Denmark) where I have a connecting flight to Beijing.

On Copenhagen Airport I found tourist built from LEGO and smallest Starbucks what I’ve seen so far.

LEGO tourist - Copenhagen, Denmark
LEGO tourist – Copenhagen, Denmark
Smallest Starbucks - Copenhagen, Denmark
Smallest Starbucks – Copenhagen, Denmark

Yupi! Finally, I’m in Beijing!

After more than around 15 hours in travel, I arrived at the Beijing – tired and happy. I didn’t know this will be the beginning of surprises this day πŸ™‚

Where is my backpack?

The first surprise waited for me at the airport – my backpack doesn’t show up on the carousel. So I went report “Lost luggage” and they told me my backpack stuck in Copenhagen πŸ™‚ I left them the address of my hostel and they told me – my backpack will fly to Beijing next flight and they will bring it to me next day directly to my hostel. The first day in a new place without clothes to change, a towel and shower gel to make a shower after the trip – a good lesson for a future to pack to hand backpack clothes for change (1 day), small towel, and gel.

No card payment?

This wasn’t the last surprise on airport πŸ™‚ When I wanted buy a ticket for Airport Express to downtown it turned out I have to pay only cash they don’t accept card payment – so I needed to go back to the airport and find an ATM to be able to withdraw cash to pay for a ticket to downtown.
Good I was prepared for it and I created an account in Revolut (they have cheap withdraw commissions from ATM).

How to go to my hostel?

Before my trip to Beijing, I bought a Chinese SIM Card and VPN service to had easy access to the internet in China.

Chinese SIM card gave me 3GB 4G LTE Data + 50 mins Local Calls or 100 Texts (I bought SIM Card from LvyCom company and after whole trip I very happy from used it and I can recommend this company).

I also bought VPN from company Astrill – why? If you know or not in China that services like Google, Facebook, Whatsup etc. was blocked to use in China. To can use it you need VPN service to can connect with this services.

When I met friends from China they recommended me to use from Chinese maps (Baidu Maps) – maybe all is in Chinese but when you use Google Translate to translate name place where to want to go to Chinese language and you paste this name in Chinese language to this map you can easy found place what you search and this map has better navigation to our place.

When I resolved this problem I got to my Hostel without any problem (I spent an entire stay in Beijing in this Hostel – “Happy Dragon. Saga Youth Hostel” – they have a good price and is located downtown close to Forbidden City).

Rest of this day I spent walking streets around my Hostel and searching for some shop to buy basic things to let me take a shower πŸ™‚ (If you need to buy in China basic chemistry items I recommend MiniSo shop – you can simply find this shop in Apple Map).

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