Actually I had to stay two nights in Beijing, but I wanted to save money by staying only one night in hostel. I booked a flight arriving at night, so I could stay my first night at the airport. For tomorrow night I planned to stay at hostel which I had its address but I didn’t make reservation. I was still hoping a luck, actually. I had contact with one of Couchsurfers but I disconnected to the Internet.
My plane landed around 9 pm, while my pre-departure briefing to go to North Korea was at 4 pm on the next day. As my lack of information about Beijing, it’s useless if I went to the city just looking for a bed. Once I walked out of the plane I moved slowly to the arrival gate, stopped by at stores, then changed my RMB100 into small cash. I was lucky the staff didn’t charge me commission.
Once at arrival gate, I looked around and went outside to feel the air of China, curious of its pollution, anyway. I studied the situation, searched bus or train station, but I didn’t have any clue. I spent the night by exploring floor by floor, and concluded that the only way to get the city is by Beijing Capital Airport Express Train at first floor. After checking out its place and timetable, I sought a couch to sleep.
I was at Terminal 2, where second floor is arrival gate, and third floor is departure gate. I didn’t expect there would be many people at night, but then I remembered I was in China. People are everywhere in China. I didn’t find any comfortable seat, all I saw were benches with arms. There were circular couches but have been taken. However, I needed to lie down, and fortunately I fitted under the arms of the bench. I protected my backpack by making it as pillow, then covered my face with my cardigan to get sleep in the dark. But, as you know, I just closed my eyes for one or two hours, then watched people until morning.
The one-way fare of Airport Express Train was RMB25. Before coming to my meeting place I visited landmark of the city and went to hostel which I planned to stay, but got the price was more than my budget. So, I’ll be loiterer tonight.
While thinking where I am going to stay this night, an idea popped up. Back to the airport! It seemed to be brilliant idea because the airport has toilet even though it’s not comfortable for me, I don’t need to take a bath as I am going to fly to DPRK and stay at a nice hotel in the following night, and it’s free of charge. Knowing that I am safe, I was fully excited to enjoy the night in Beijing. Instead of spend about 180 yuan for a bed that I use only for few hours, I prefer to lie down in a bench at the airport which cost only RMB50 for round-trip express train ticket. Mhm, by the way, my experience at the second night was still similar to the first one.
