Beijing me voilà!

After a 9-and-a-half-hour long flight from Paris, I got off the plane... 45 minutes late... went through customs where a guy checked my passport, my visa and the various forms I had filled out, and while he's doing that, I had the oppportunity to give him immediate feedback on his work by pressing one of the 4 following smiley buttons:
- Greatly satisfied with it
- Satisfied
- Dissatisfied, takes too much time
- Very dissatisfied
...If you press the last one, you better run fast :)

I then walked to luggage belt #7 and saw on the way a lady holding a sign with names on it... I immediately noticed something close to CHICHEPORTIC and went to talk to her. She tried her best to explain to me in English that my luggage had been delayed and that I would not find it on the belt. Great news! Anyway, I went to the baggage enquiry desk and filed a report for my lost suitcase. My guitar however made it... why? how?

I finally met Chris (Na) waiting for me outside at around 1PM. I withdrew some money at an ATM machine with her much needed help and we took a taxi to the office. We arrived at the TsingHua tower after a 45 minutes ride and went straight to the 8th floor to meet the team. They all seem very friendly and have all started teasing me about my Chinese skills. Chris said they were also interested in having me teach them some French... Simon, hang in there, I won't come back empty handed!!! :)

After having a very quick chat with everyone, we went downstairs for lunch. Food was good and I even got my regular "Ke Kou Ke Le*" along with it (*Coca-Cola)... and they even have TVs for entertainment while eating.

After that we took another taxi to go to the Somerset ZhongGuanCun Hotel... traffic is awful in Beijing, especially around this time of the day!

The place I'm staying in... let me just say... WAW! I checked in at the reception downstairs and got my electronic key card to go to my apartment on the 10th floor!

Chris went through it with me and the housekeeping manager then arrived for an express 1 minute inventory in Chinese!!!


It's a 75 sqm apartment with all you need in it to be happy... even air-con :)
It has an all equipped kitchen. A nice comfy couch to crash on, 2 flat screen TVs and 2 CD/DVD players... one in the living room and one in the bedroom, broadband...






...a see-through bathroom wall from the bedroom, a phone next to the toilets!




... and a Utensil sterilizing cabinet in which you can also put fruits and vegetables!?! I don't really know what to make of this crazy machine yet but I have the feeling it won't be used too often!

That's it so far! I'm now waiting for my suitcase to show up today to know if I need to make a trip to the Carrefour to buy some clothes and stuff!