This is part 8 of a series on my trip to Austria, Germany and China.
- Austria, Germany, China 2014: Part 1 – How I am going to Timewarp in Germany AND Beijing in Business Class for $184
- Austria, Germany, China 2014: Part 2- 12 Amazing Places I want to see on my trip to China. The last one is terrifying!
- Austria, Germany, China 2014: Part 3 – How I got paid to take a free trip.
- Austria, Germany, China 2014: Part 4 – 9 Hours in Vienna
- Austria, Germany, China 2014: Part 5 – Frankfurt, Robert-Johnson, and Timewarp
- Austria, Germany, China 2014: Part 6 – The Flagship Austrian Airlines Business Class Lounge
- Austria, Germany, China 2014: Part 7 – Vienna to Beijing Business Class on an Austrian Airlines Boeing 767-300
- Austria, Germany, China 2014: Part 8 – Beijing, Tian’anmen Square, The Forbidden City
- Austria, Germany, China 2014: Part 9 – The Great Wall of China at Jinshanling
- Austria, Germany, China 2014: Part 10 – How my Discover Card saved my life in China
- Austria, Germany, and China 2014: Part 11 – Bullet Trains and Zhengzhou
- Austria, Germany, and China 2014: Part 12 – Xi’an and the Terracotta Warriors
- Austria, Germany and China 2014: Part 13 – Zhangjiajie, Monkeys and Avatar
- Austria, Germany and China 2014: Part 14 – Changsha, Wuhan, and Hefei
- Austria, Germany and China 2014: Part 15 – Intercontinental Hangzhou: Is this the coolest hotel I have stayed at?
I received 40,000 of the 100,000 miles I used for this award ticket by getting the US Airways® Premier World MasterCard®! This is a great card and one I still carry. These miles will eventually become American miles which are some of the most valuable. Click here to apply now for one of your own!
As I arrived in Beijing, I was impressed by the wide open and contemporary airport.
I took the airport train to the main terminal.
And then saw this on the way! I always buy local SIM cards for my unlocked iPhone to save on roaming costs. Luckily there was an attendant right beside the machine that helped me choose the right card, cut it to size to fit my phone and get everything going. 150 Yuan ($24) and I was in business with 200MB of data!
The airport already gave off the high tech reputation that Beijing had with video and LEDs everywhere!
I had booked 5 free nights at the Crowne Plaza Zhongguancun using 5000 points a night via the Pointsbreak special I talked about in this article. Since I am a Gold Ambassador with IHG, they upgraded me to a nice corner room and gave me a fruit basket.
I spent the first few days just going out exploring. I saw some really neat things and some really strange things!
They even had cool video advertising in the subway tunnels!
I always thought that people with masks for the pollution were overreacting, but after my China pollution app told me it was seriously polluted AND my throat started hurting on the second day, I decided it was better to be healthy than fashionable. I read this article on pollution masks to help me decide which one to get. I found some 3M ones at the 7-11 for about $2 for three. Pro tip: Those blue or white surgical ones don’t block the microscopic particles that are present in the China pollution.
I had to try Peking Duck in Peking (Beijing was formerly known as Peking if you didn’t know!)
I checked out Tian’anmen Square. It was quite impressive and much bigger than I expected. At their request, I posed for some photos with some other Chinese tourists (which would become a recurring theme for this whole trip!)
I even caught the changing of the guard ceremony while I was there.
I went to the street market at Wangfujing and saw all sorts of weird foods and tried some of them!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo2xVkbyOIY
I made it to the historical part of the city south of Tian’anmen square.
I went to The Forbidden City and saw a 600 year old Bixi!
I explored the gardens around The Forbidden City to the West and North as well.
I also got to try a bunch of different kinds of street food which I love. As Anthony Bourdain recommends when you are getting street food, always go to the one with the biggest line! The people have spoken! Pretty much everything there is less than $1.
Whew! That is a lot of stuff I saw! There actually is a little more Beijing on the tail end of the trip, but that is what I saw in my first 5 days. In the next installment I go see the Great Wall of China! As always, feel free to comment with any questions and follow me on Google+, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram! Today is the first posting of videos from our new Youtube channel as well so add us to your favorites on there if you like what you see!
The seats had a throw blanket and a pillow as well as a spacious table on the side. Their seats on this plane were arranged 1-2-1 which gave every seat aisle access so you don’t have to worry about waking anyone up to go to the bathroom during the flight or getting woken up yourself! If you are traveling by yourself, pick the single window seats for better privacy, but if you are traveling with someone else, the middle seats will allow you to easily chat during the flight. This flight was pretty full up front in business class!
I had plenty of leg room in the seat even though I am 6’2″. They had an average, but good 15″ AVOD (Audio Video on Demand) system with a good selection of movies and TV shows in multiple languages. Plus it had a USB port to charge your phone / tablet.
They had push buttons for the different seat positions including options to make your cushion harder or softer and even a massage option! You sure won’t find that in coach!
The additional space and seats in business class is one part of why I enjoy flying that way, but a close second is the food! The food is selected by DO & CO Catering. Here was the menu they gave me.
I was trying to decide which antipasti to try when she suggested I try a little bit of all of them, and who am I to argue?
The bacon wrapped goats cheese salad was my favorite I would say, but they were all quite tasty. I chose the braised veal for my main course.
They had a comprehensive coffee menu to choose from as well which I thought was interesting. I tried the Einspanner since it said it was a Viennese specialty and they asked if I wanted anything to go in it. Why, yes, some Baileys would do nicely!
I finished off my meal service with the cheese platter and a chocolate fondant which was very rich but small enough to make it manageable. It went great with the coffee.
By this point, I was stuffed and read to get some sleep so I checked out their amenity kit that came wrapped neatly in this pouch.
It included some face lotion by Bogner, toothbrush, toothpaste, a sleep mask, a shoehorn (do people still use those?), some ear plugs and some socks.
I would say this is probably an average type of amenity kit but nothing to write home about compared to some i have seen. I changed into some shorts before I knocked out because I often get hot in jeans when I am trying to sleep, so no comments about my beautiful feet! 
I think they are great, but some people like my Dad find these seats a little claustrophobic in the flat position so keep that in mind. We had the same type of seats on 
I had an omelette and some fruit which was good and light enough after the heavy dinner service.
