16.12.19 Beijing (flight-hotel-flight)

As always on time with Air China, the plane lands in Beijing at 11:25 am. Snowfall at 0 degrees. Due to this and also because it gets dark at 3:30 pm, I decide not to go on a tour of the city and transfer to my day hotel. 

For this, you have to go through the visa formalities for a 144-hour stay. So fill out an application at the airport, wait at two counters, have your hand luggage scanned again, then take a train for 6 minutes to Terminal 3 and then look for an Air China counter that only deals with hotel transfers. 

The lady there - no wonder - does not speak English, but she finds me based on my booking number. Unfortunately, I received a rejection for the usually used Crown Plaza for Business Class this year and I am now booked at the Airport Yuanghang International Hotel Beijing. First, I get a tag like a solo traveling child 😁 and have to sit on a bench to wait for the shuttle pick-up. 

2 hours after landing I am already in bed. The bathroom is worth seeing: The radiator is in the shower 😁 and next to it - in the middle of the water jet - there is a poorly insulated pipe coming out of the wall. 

8.5 hours break until the transfer back to the airport. The hotel has extremely comfortable beds, is well heated and has free Wi-Fi that works properly. Overall not a bad thing. However, everything here is exclusively labeled in Chinese. 

I take the shuttle back to the airport at 9:30 pm. Now I have to go backwards again with the train, through immigration control, security, and eventually I'm back on the plane to New Zealand for the longer leg of the journey - flight duration 12.5 hours.