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~ Rants and raves from a restless mind.

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Tag Archives: Beijing

Trip Report: Beijing to Manila with China Eastern Airlines

07 Thursday Sep 2017

Posted by jasetiojanco in Personal, Travel, Trip Report

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Tags

767, Adventure, Airport, Beijing, Boeing, Cancelled Flight, China, China Eastern, China Eastern Airlines, Chinese, Delayed Flight, Shanghai, Shanghai Airlines, Travel, Trip Report

Oh boy, this is fun.

(If you want to read about the flight experience, scroll further down until you see the second photo)

I had the opportunity to try China Eastern Airlines last month when I treated my mom to a vacation in Beijing. The frugal side of me prevailed and booked the mentioned airline instead of Philippine Airlines.

IMG_2135.jpg

After four days of roaming around Beijing, it was time to go back home. Our flight to Shanghai Pudong, MU 563, was scheduled to depart at 5:15 in the afternoon. We left our hotel after having lunch and arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport T2 at around 2 in the afternoon. Continue reading →

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Trip Report: Manila to Beijing with China Eastern Airlines

11 Friday Aug 2017

Posted by jasetiojanco in Personal, Travel, Trip Report

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Tags

Adventure, Air Travel, Airlines, Airplane, Beijing, China, China Eastern, China Eastern Airlines, In Flight Meal, Manila, MU, NAIA, Pudong, Seat Pitch, Seat Width, Shanghai, Travel, Trip, Trip Report

These past two years, I have been sticking with Philippine Airlines more and more for my travel. Why? Mabuhay Miles, of course. It may not be as powerful as other loyalty programs because of PAL’s non-membership to any of the alliances but it suits my needs fairly well.

DSC05556.jpg

There are exceptions though. When the airfare is too good for me to ignore, I grab it. Case in point, my recent trip to Beijing. I promised my mom that I will bring her to the Great Wall on her birthday. I was about to book two tickets to Beijing via Philippine Airlines at 545 USD when I saw China Eastern Airlines’ promo — 400 USD for two. I booked the tickets immediately.

Continue reading →

Exploring Beijing – Day 2

26 Sunday Jun 2011

Posted by jasetiojanco in Personal, Thoughts, Travel

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Aiwowo, Beijing, Beijing de Kao Ya, Bianyifang, China, Chongwenmen, Circular Mound, Forbidden City, Gu Gong, Guang Chang, Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, Imperial Vault of Heaven, Ludagun, Roast Duck, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Tian Tan, Tiananmen Square, Wanduohuamg, Yi He Yuan

This is the continuation of my two journal entries last week on my our adventure in the amazing Chinese capital, Beijing. Even though that the highlight of our trip is our Great Wall experience, I consider our second day more fun. Read on to find out…

DAY 2 – 第二天

After an extremely exhausting first day in Beijing, I was pretty surprised that my body wasn’t aching when I woke up on our second day. Right after I took a shower, Deng, my Chinese project mate from IBM China, called. He asked me if I am available for dinner that night. We agreed to meet up at around 7:30 PM at the lobby of Novotel.

Arman, ate, and I went down to Novotel’s cafe and ate our breakfast. As I have mentioned in my previous posts, I was a little short on cash so I was very thankful that my sister treated me to breakfast that day. We didn’t have anything planned for our second day aside from going to the Tiananmen Square (天安门广场). Fun right? I tried to stealthily persuade my sister and Arman to seeing other historical sites by squeezing them in our conversations during breakfast but I failed miserably.

After breakfast, we headed to the Chongwenmen Station of the Beijing Subway which is right in front of Novotel. My sister and Arman trusted me in taking them to Tiananmen Square so with a map of Beijing at hand, I did a Dora the Explorer and headed to the ticketing machine.

Chongwenmen Station - our gateway to the rest of Beijing 😛

I was a little confused at first with the subway’s ticketing machine. I wasn’t able to take a photo of it but it’s like LRT’s ticketing machine with a touch panel for choosing your destination. Initially, it was all in Chinese so I really had no clue as to what I was doing. Good thing that I noticed a button with “English” written on it so I pressed that one. The ticketing machine presents you a map of the entire Beijing Subway and you can choose to show only a certain Subway Line. I pressed Line 2 since the Qianmen Station, the station nearest the Tiananmen Square, was in that line. Each ticket, or piao (票), only costs 2 RMB (~14 PhP) regardless of destination. Seriously, you can go to any station along any line and you’d only have to pay 2 RMB. I’ll rave a little bit more about their subway system later in this post. Continue reading →

Exploring Beijing – Day 1

12 Sunday Jun 2011

Posted by jasetiojanco in Food, Personal, Travel

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Badaling, Beijing, Beijing Subway, Bianyiang Restaurant, Big Mac, China, Cloissone, Dr. Tea, Forbidden City, Gray Line Tours, Great Wall, Gu Gong, Guang Chang, Huairou, Jasmine Tea Ice Cream, Mutianyu, Novotel, Olympics, Scorpions, Seahorse, Silk Street, Starfish, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Tian Tan, Tiananmen Square, Wangfujing, Yi He Yuan

After 4 months of waiting, I’ve finally arrived in Beijing. We only had two whole days to explore the Chinese capital so we really had to maximize our time there. This entry will be about our first day in Beijing so here goes…

DAY 1 – 第一天

Since we arrived in the early morning of our first day in Beijing, we only had little time to sleep before going to our first destination – the Great Wall. I have already told Arman and Ate beforehand that we should go to the Mutianyu (慕田峪) section of the Great Wall rather than the more popular Badaling (八达岭) section. Why? Because according to my ‘research’, the Badaling section is overcrowded and over developed to the point that it loses its historical appeal. During peak seasons, it becomes the Great Wall of Tourists. Mutianyu, on the other hand, is also restored but not overly so. It also offers better views though it is a bit farther than Badaling.

I woke up at around 6 AM. I barely had 5 hours of sleep but I was full of energy because of the excitement brought about by the sheer thought of me being on the Great Wall in a few hours. I sprang up from my bed and took a shower while my sister and Arman were still asleep. They were sleeping oh-so-soundly and I have this thing against waking people up.

At around 7:30 AM, ate and Arman woke up already and they started preparing. Arman told us that there’s a buffet breakfast downstairs but it costs an extra 113 RMB which is roughly 700 PhP. Since we were in a hurry, we decided to eat there rather than go scavenger hunting for a nearby restaurant. Before going to the breakfast buffet, we booked a guided tour to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. The tour is handled by Gray Line Tours. It costs 420 RMB (~3000 PhP) inclusive of the English speaking tour guide as well as the tour bus ride to Mutianyu. It also includes a side trip to a Cloisonne Factory and a government-owned tea house. Oh, there goes my 445 RMB pocket money. I initially told my sister and Arman that we should go for a do-it-yourself tour but they were afraid that we might get lost. According to the people on PinoyExchange, it would only cost around 120 RMB to go to Mutianyu if we rode the public bus.

Power Breakfast! I needed to eat a lot since it was a long day ahead.

After our breakfast at Novotel’s Citrus Cafe, we waited for our tour bus to arrive. The tour desk at Novotel told us that the bus would arrive at around 9:20 AM but it was late by a few minutes because of the traffic in Beijing. Anyway, I thought we plus two other guests from Novotel were the only ones on the tour. Apparently, there are other people from other hotels as well.

Gray Line Tours corporation. Their tour was actually good although it was a bit pricey.

That's Liu, our super funny and well-articulated English-speaking Chinese tourguide. He knows quite a lot about China (and the rest of the world).

After picking us up, we went to another hotel to pick up two other tourists. If I remember correctly, they were Spanish tourists.  Our bus headed for the expressway once we were complete. Continue reading →

Mabuhay!

I am Jase and welcome to my space. I am a solution engineer from Manila. Frustrated polyglot. Foodie. Caffeinated. Can survive eating fried chicken every day.

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