This photo was on Wangfujing Street, and you can see CITIC Tower peeping in the back.
Early morning flights are always brutal and pulling an all-nighter before is probably the worst thing you can do, which is exactly what I did 😂.
The day before the flight I had two finals: Japanese and Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence. On top of that, I had to finish two assignments. Although they were not due explicitly that day, I wanted to ensure I submitted them because I was not going to take a chance with The Great Firewall.
Flight was 9:05 AM, and my travel partner, Cole, and I wanted to be at the airport by 6 AM since it is an international flight, and we were still pretty skeptical about Trip.com since $927 for 4 flights is an insane deal. The problem with getting to the airport at 6 is that the first train from Kyoto heading that direction is at 5:00 AM and the commute is about 2 hours. Cole lives directly above the station, so catching the train is very convenient for him, but not me. My dorm is quite far, and the bus does not run before 5 AM, so I had to leave my dorm at 3:45 AM and walk to the station for our 4:50 AM meetup time.
By the time I got to the station, I was drenched in sweat. Surprisingly, the walk only took me 40 minutes and I had about 15 minutes to spare before Cole arrived. I must say Kyoto during the quiet hours of 4-6 AM is the most beautiful and peaceful city in the world. Walking along the Kamo Gawa, hearing the river flow, and watching the sun slowly rise, I never felt so zen in my life.
Getting to the airport was smooth, and I did not even dose off even though I was incredibly tired. Adrenaline was probably taking a control of me.
The airport process also went very smooth, and I essentially stressed myself out for nothing. The flight desk attendant just swiped our passports, gave us our tickets, and sent us on our way with expedited security passes and lounge access. I was worried they were going to have to edit my ticket since I forgot to include my middle name on the booking and the last time I forgot to put my middle name on the booking was Hong Kong and the flight desk attendants got pretty mad. Luckily that was not the case and everything was seamless.
Immigration was super smooth for me since I have three passports! I just scanned my Canadian passport and went on my way to the gate. Thank you, Mark Carney! I am so thankful I chose Japan to study abroad because I did not have to go through the visa process and have to obtain a reentry visa like Cole. He had to sit in the immigration line for over 30 minutes 🤣.
By the time Cole got out of immigration, we had to board. I have trouble understanding why people who are not even at the front of the plane in a rush to board so quickly, and even boarding a plane front to back is stupid. There has got to be a better way and people need to drop the "first come, first served" mentality and learn what "personal space" is. That was by far the biggest pet peeve I had 🤦♂️.
I can not believe I was ever skeptical of Trip.com. Although they may have my data, I do not think my data brings a lot of value 😂 and besides, we got business class seats for no reason.
I definitely deserved this glass of champagne after locking in to finish all my assignments and responsibilities before the trip. A lot of people in the dorm doubted me, but they do not know: I AM THE GUY WHO GETS THE JOB DONE 😤
Flight was pretty short, but I passed out. Shortly after the meal, we landed. By 12 PM we were passed immigration. Like Shenzhen again, it took me a while to get connected to my eSim, but this time it took 30 minutes instead of the hour and a half 😂.
DiDi, China's Uber, is the best system ever. It does not matter where you are, you can get connected with a driver within seconds, and the best part is that the rides are super cheap. Our 40-minute ride to the hotel only costs us $18 USD, split between two, it's $9. I may complain about the U.S. but when you are traveling abroad, there is nothing better than abusing the Freedom Bucks 🫡.
I also want to note how incredibly smart the U.S. is on banning Chinese EVs because they would absolutely dominate the market and greatly harm the economy. The vast majority of cars I rode in China was an EV. All those EVs on the road in China is great for the environment and a great step to a Net-Zero world, and one would think the Chinese drivers are environmentally cautious, right? Wrong they smoke a pack of cigarettes while driving, and defeat the purpose of the EV 🤣.
We got to the hotel around 2 PM, I do not want to share a photo of the hotel room because that was a disgusting room, but in a great location. Almost everything was walking distance.
After checking-in, we headed down to Tian'anmen Square. We thought we would just be able to walk in, but a guard later told us we have to book tickets for entry one day in advance. This made me pretty mad because the guard was at the last security checkpoint that told us that, so we just wasted our time going through two security gates for no reason 🙄.
After wasting our time trying to get into Tian'anmen, we walked over to Wangfujing Street, and got bīngqílín (ice cream).
Curry might be the athlete to propel Li-Ning to a brand that can compete with Nike and Adidas.
We got tired of window-shopping around Wangfujing Street, and we could not get same-day tickets to the other places we wanted to visit, so we opted to walk to a nearby theater and watch the new Spider-Man instead.
I did not know this was the opening day for China, so the theater was packed, but we were somehow able to snag tickets. Not just any tickets too, they were IMAX, and only cost $7. Chinese movie theaters are punctual, they do not run previews, and immediately start the film at the listed showtime. It was a great theater experience, I liked the film, and you can read my letterboxd review.
Right next to the theater is Ritan Park, and it is free entry, so we went.
We got a moderately expensive dinner ($53 USD) to commemorate our first day in China, and called it a night.
