The flight from Vancouver to Beijing, China roughly takes 11.5 hours. I always fly with Air China since I have one of their frequent flier memberships - but who knows how many times I have to fly before I get a free flight! Although 11.5 hour doesn't seem too bad, but sitting in one spot for that long gets tiring after awhile.
At 3:00pm local time, I arrived in Beijing, China. Once you get off the plane, it's pretty simple and straight forward - follow the crowd, and the signs, which display both Chinese and English directions.
Inside the beijing airport, once you exit into the airport building, you take a flight of stairs up to the 3rd floor. Following the signs, within about 5 to 10 minutes of walking, you'll take a flight of stairs down to the 2nd floor and you'll see the customs in a large open area. The customs area has two types of lanes for lineup. There were probably about 12 to 15 lanes for local Chinese travellers, and another 12 to 15 lanes for foreign travellers. I made the mistake of picking any lane my first time there, but this time around, I picked the right lane.
Fortunately, I arrived in Beijing during the off season in late may when there aren’t as many travellers. At customs clearance, because it’s off season, I did not have to wait at all. I handed my passport and entrance declaration card to the officer, and I was on my way.
Photo of the Beijing Airport luggage pickup area.
Beijing Airport
As you would expect, being an international airport, and situated in the capital city of China, the Beijing Airport is well maintained, clean, and clearly marked with english / chinese signs. Once you exit the tunnel from the plane, you can sense this air of excitment and energy.
Right when you get off the plane, in the tunnel leading into the Beijing Airport, the walls are plastered with framed ads. The exit tunnel for my flight happened to be ads for the Chinese life insurance company called TaiKang. Inside the airport you see even more advertising. Large and small billboards on the walls filled with advertising. Mostly, I saw ads for cell phones, visa, watches, expensive residences and condos in development, and advertising for the 2008 olymipics being held in Beijing. |
