We checked out of the JR Marriott Xi’an after an early 5:30 a.m. breakfast and headed back to the Xian airport Terminal 5. This enormous facility is less than a year old, which would explain why everything is so nice and new.
Viking’s air department still managed to fail to seat several couples together, despite promises that we would be seated together because Viking had a block of seats. This did not turn out to be true. We had random Chinese travelers sprinkled amongst us, and it took a bit of horse trading to be able to sit with our spouses. Viking gets a failing grade on the air portions of the inland tour extensions.
Screening at the airport was tedious, in part because they use AI to scan all the checked luggage with a 3D scanner and flag anything that might be a potential problem. However, X-rays can’t tell a lithium battery from an alkaline battery, so Ben’s suitcase got flagged for secondary screening because he had a headlamp and flashlight in his suitcase that on multiple prior screenings were OK. From now on, all alkaline batteries and anything with a built-in rechargeable battery has to go in carry-on luggage. They also made us take out umbrellas for them to inspect.
Be prepared for a detailed pat-down after walking through the magnetometer, including reaching around the inside of my belt.
The flight to Beijing was less than 2 hours and included a light lunch box with some roll-ups and mini-spicy chicken sandwich buns.
We flew into Beijing’s “New” airport south of the city, Daxing Airport (PKX), completed in 2019. It is nicknamed the Starfish because of the layout of the terminals and is currently built out to handle 75 million passengers. It is currently less busy than Beijing Capital Airport (PEK), which is currently handling 83 million passengers a year.
It is designed to be expanded to a capacity of 120 million passengers per year over time with the addition of more runways and terminals. Despite its newness, we were shocked to be greeted coming down the jetway with two flights of stairs leading down to the tarmac, where we were jammed into crowded buses and then driven quite a long distance to the main terminals. This was nearly as bad as Frankfurt’s airport, where the buses took more than 20 minutes to get to the main terminal areas.
Viking had luggage handlers in Beijing who pulled our suitcases off the carousels and took care of delivering them to the hotel, where they would be delivered to our rooms.
We boarded a bus which took us to a restaurant associated with a Pearl store. This was an obvious ploy to generate sales, but the restaurant had a decent buffet lunch with both Chinese and some Western food choices. One of our fellow travelers, who is well versed in pearls, said everything was marked up quite a bit over what they should be. We didn’t end up buying any souvenirs.
From the restaurant, it was a short drive to the Summer Palace. We had visited it with our Travel China Guide small group before the Viking cruise, so we knew what to expect. However, our Viking guide took us across the lake on a ferry, which was tranquil and provided different views of all the landmarks than what can be seen from the shores. This was also less fatiguing for those in our group with mobility issues. We also got different narration regarding the Dowager Empress and the history of how the Palace was constructed.
We walked from the Marble Boat down the covered walkway, stopping periodically to hear the stories behind several of the paintings on the walkway. Many had come from the epic tale Journey to the West. We took a return ferry to conclude our tour and then headed into Beijing rush hour traffic to our hotel.
We arrived at the hotel earlier than planned, or so we thought. We disembarked the bus and were escorted by very enthusiastic and friendly staff at the Shangri-La Beijing to an executive reception room on the 64th floor, where they had comfortable leather seats, espresso coffee drinks, and a spectacular view of Beijing’s tallest skyscraper just a few blocks away.
The staff took our passports as passengers arrived from the elevators, but as they tried to process the first two couples, there came a terrible realization that while the hotel was expecting a busload of Viking passengers, it was not our bus they were expecting. We had been dropped off at the wrong hotel!
It took about 30 minutes to get another bus back to the hotel to then take us to the correct hotel (Beijing Ritz Carlton) through gridlocked traffic. The traffic was so bad that Jimmy, our guide, hopped out of the bus and jogged to the hotel as the bus struggled through the traffic.
He had taken all our passports to exchange them for our room keycards. It took another 30 minutes to get to the hotel through maddening traffic. It was 7 p.m. when we finally got up to our rooms.
Ben’s data plan had run out of data without warning. Unfortunately, China is one of only 3 countries that won’t allow e-SIMs to be activated after arrival in the country. Nomad had failed big time by failing to notify us that we were running low on data because it is possible to add additional data before the plan runs out, but if it does run out, you can’t reactivate it unless you leave the country and return. Crazy. So we ended up having to use our primary cell carrier’s international data pass, which is vastly more expensive ($10/day for up to 5GB, vs $10 for 20GB over 30 days on the eSIM). But since we only need one day to pay for tonight’s dinner with WeChat Pay, it would have to do. We had allotted all our remaining Chinese currency to tips for our tour director and driver.
We walked to a nearby mall’s food court and found a noodle shop where we had some good bowls of noodles for little money. It cost less than $6 per person, including a beer for dinner.
We reconfigured our luggage to move heavy things back from our carry-on bags into our large suitcases because in business class, the checked bags can weigh up to 70 pounds or 44kg each. And we are allowed to check two bags each as well, but Ben will keep his carry-on bag because it has all his prescription medications for the next 2 months in it.
Tomorrow, our Korea and China adventure will come to an end. We leave the hotel at 6:45 a.m. and fly to Seoul, and then from Seoul back to Seattle. We arranged for a shuttle to pick us up in Seattle to take us the last 2-1/2 hrs drive from the airport to home.
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