Arrival in Handan
Trip Start
Mar 20, 2008
1
4
13
Trip End
Mar 31, 2008
Handan, Hebei, China
Friday, March 21, 2008
Once in the air I relax with the music on the aircraft. Enjoyed the hot meals and the several rounds of drinks that were served on this China Southern flight. Even getting a hot towel after my meal was a new experience for me. The plane was packed to the rafters with every seated taken. I enjoyed looking across at everyone and the various habits I saw on the plane.
Soon enough, we landed at the fairly new Handan airport. It was clean and soon after I picked up my bag, I had an inspector there to ensure I had the right luggage. My hosts were waiting for me and we exchanged pleasantries and headed into the cooler northern air. The overcast conditions I left in Guangzhou were still the same here in Handan. Only this time with a tinge of brown, courtesy of countless surrounding coal mines, power stations and the monstrous Handan steel works.
We jump into the cab, an old Daihatsu looking thing. It was a small car to begin with but the added security bars in the passenger compartment made it even smaller. We then were whisked off into the city along the empty airport road. So empty infact, we drove down the wrong side of the divided roadway. We then came out onto a busier ring road, which we then exited, driving through a gap in the road in the road divide that someone had cut away. Then into the busy city streets. 500m before arriving at the hotel, the taxi driver starts to drift across into oncoming traffic ready to make the turn into the hotel entrance. It was a ride I will not forget soon but only the first in many such trips I was soon to make.
The Handan International Hotel (Handan Guoren Fandian) was a typical white tiled high rise business hotel. I had a comfortable room, good size with hard double bed, 13 13!!! You will not get that hotel room in Australia. It is lunch time and we go to the coffee house that is attached to the front of the hotel. Coffee house can not make a decent coffee, it is all machine coffee and the staff have no idea about various styles of coffee.
After lunch, I am left to rest and relax. But I am too eager to see more and I go exploring, walking down to a nearby park that has an underground shopping centre beneath it and a very attractive lake. It is all very new and trees are not fully established but it still looks great.
I catch up with the others for dinner and we head off. On the second story of a large two floor restaurant, I order a fish dish, becuase of Good Friday and then I say a prayer wondering what it is that I had ordered. It turned out to be a whole river fish that was not too bad. It was interesting eating it using only chopsticks.
