“So where are we going exactly?”
“Well, first, Beijing, for three days.”
“And then?”
“I have no idea.”
“No, seriously.”
“Oh, I’m serious. Daddy and I were supposed to plan the trip in June, but… I guess we didn’t. You know Daddy, he likes to do things last minute… and anyway, back in the days, like, before you, we never used to book places to stay, bus tickets, etc. We roughly knew where we wanted to go, and we would find ways to get there. The first words I learned in Spanish and Portuguese were ‘Do you have a room?’. And this is how your dad and I ended up in Brazil, Patagonia, middle-of-nowhere Australia, and more.”
“So no plan, eh. What could possibly go wrong…”
Mark raised a valid point. Going to China without a plan isn’t particularly advisable. But China is Feng’s home and my own second home—I spent a summer studying at university in Beijing when I was 16, and it got me hooked on China, travelling, and possibly Feng, since this is where we met. I travelled to China alone several times. Feng and I went together in 2008, then in 2014 with baby Mark, and of course, last year.
I’m not scared of China.
However, I did worry about the many logistical aspects of the trip. It’s a different world over there.
I spent a few nights picking the perfect VPN (plural, I bought a plan from two different providers, just in case) because even though I’m not a big fan of Google, I need to Google shit for work all the time and it’s blocked in China, along with many Western websites. Fair enough, the West blocks Chinese websites too.
Then I started to worry about our payment apps, Wēixìn (微信) and Zhīfùbǎo (支付宝). It’s impossible to pay with cash or a credit card in China, the country moved to digital payment a few years ago. Basically, you spend your time scanning barcodes or getting scanned—it’s both convenient and easy as long as the apps work. For some reason, Zhīfùbǎo kept on asking me for a six-digit PIN code that I didn’t have or—gasp—forgot. Damn.
I started packing on Thursday, and I started to beg Mark to pack on Friday—he did an amazing job, I was shocked.
Feng called me later that evening. He had landed early in Paris and, after a nap, he had spent the day checking out “the tower” and enjoying a very Parisian meal… kebab.
On Saturday, Mark and I boarded the 3:19 p.m. train to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
I must have checked twenty times that I had both of our passports.
Feng picked us up at the train station, then we went to his hotel close to Terminal 3.
“I just hope we will get our luggage when we land, this time…”
It’s a long 11-hour flight to Beijing from Paris, but I was mentally ready for it. I ate, and I dozed off, waking occasionally to check the flight map—I was wondering about the route, considering the world isn’t exactly a peaceful place these days.
We landed at 4:30 p.m. (Beijing time) on Sunday. We went through immigration, then we discovered that this time, Air France had delivered our luggage—hurrah!
After that, we went straight to China Mobile—conveniently located inside the airport and open on Sunday—to reactivate our phone numbers.
The rest of the evening was spent getting food and finding our way around Sānlǐtún, our district in Beijing.
It’s hot, it’s stormy, I need to sleep, but I’m super excited about the adventure!
