After a harrowing day in Beijing, I've made it to Ulan Bator!
I got a nice condenced "Welcome to China" experience, including being stacked in a bus like cordwood, groped, sent to and held in immigration, shoved around and yelled at by security, aggressively pursued by taxi drivers and trinket hawkers, all while trying to manuever my two flimsy cardboard boxes from one giant megaterminal to an even larger giant intergalactic spaceport megaterminal without destroying their luggage holding capacity.
Now that I'm not in China, I feel awesome.
View attachment 30454 TOO MUCH STUFF.
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In terminal 3, there is a train to take you from customs to security. Because it's crazy giant huge like that.
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Cool stuff in Beijing airport.
Had a huge scare when a french woman told me that she was denied a boarding pass, Mongolia changed its visa waiver list and cut off most countries. So she had to go on an epic mission to post shops copy shops and embassies, China transit visa running out, unable to read any of the addresses, given counterfeit money and left stranded, unable to communicate with anyone BUT SOMEHOW SUCCEDED and got a same day visa and was back to catch the next flight. I don't think I could do it. Fortunately I got through - US citizens still get visa waived, but I was shitting bricks to the last minute.
BTW throwing up in airplane bathrooms with a line outside sucks.
To be fair, Beijing airport had a few cool things, like staff that let you sleep peacefully on tables and benches, beer vending machines, and hot water dispensers everywhere.
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Next post oughta actually be about Mongolia...
