Winter in China - Beijing and Harbin and a bunch of flights on TG, CA & SQ

[calvinoeh]

After our Moscow adventure during winter in 2011, Lydia was keen to freeze up again on another winter adventure. We stumbled on the snow and ice festival in Harbin, China through some forwarded email and after some more research online looked like a must-visit destination. Lydia’s family that include her mum, stepdad, sister and brother were also crazy enough to join us in the freezing temperature.

Redeeming flights through BMI miles appeared to be the best option to get to Harbin. One could buy up to 24K miles a year and 22.5K miles +cash would be enough for a return business class ticket. We had everyone buy the miles during a sale period and the entire ticket including the miles purchased, cash and taxes ended costing ~$1000 USD per person which would have been about the same amount required to purchase an economy class ticket.

Harbin is only served by Air China via Beijing or Cheng Du and Asiana via Seoul on Star Alliance. We initially wanted to route on Asiana through Seoul but Asiana has their black-out period during the time we wanted to travel. We settled for a routing with a stopover through Beijing since most of us had never visited Beijing before.

Booking the flights for 6 people using miles was somewhat of a challenge. It was hard to explain to everyone that it would be impossible for everyone to travel on the same flight especially in business class. In the end I routed Lydia and I on Thai through Bangkok and Beijing. On the return, we would take Air China back to Beijing before flying to Shanghai and then connecting to Singapore on Singapore Airlines. Instead of routing the flight back to Penang, we flew back to Penang on Air Asia from Singapore and we tagged on a Bali flight from the redemption a couple of months later for a weekend getaway to further increase the value of the redemption.

The rest of the family wanted to travel together on the same flight as much as possible. I routed them on Air China since they had good availability and even up to 4 seats from Singapore to Beijing. On the return, my sis-in-law and bro-in-law would fly from Beijing to Singapore on Singapore Airlines where as the adults would fly on Air China.

As usual, the trip report will be posted on my blog with trip installments below:

Introduction
Penang to Bangkok on TG
Bangkok to Beijing on TG
Hotel G Beijing
Exploring Beijing
Exploring Beijing - The Great Wall at Mutianyu
Exploring Beijing - The Forbidden Palace
Exploring Beijing - Temple of Heaven
Novotel Beijing Peace
Food in Beijing
Beijing to Harbin on CA
Food in Harbin
Ibis Harbin
Exploring Harbin
Sun Island Park Harbin
Harbin Ice & Snow World
Harbin to Shanghai via Beijing on Air China
Shanghai to Singapore on SQ
Conclusion

[calvinoeh]

Just got back to Penang after a freezing time in Harbin. So much to share but couldn't do so in China with the horrible internet speeds I was getting.

Here's the first installment:

Penang to Bangkok on TG:

We got to the airport around 6 am for our 8am flight to Bangkok. There was no line in the business class line. Check-in was done by MAS agents with a supervisor from Thai Airways. Our bags were tagged all to Beijing and we were handed boarding passes and lounge invitation to the MAS Golden Lounge.

It was rather annoyingly warm and stuffy that not all the air-conditioning was turned on yet when we got to the lounge. The staff eventually turned it on a couple of minutes later. I caught up on email before enjoying a hearty breakfast of nasi lemak and coffee knowing that the food in the lounge would probably be better than on the plane later.

The lounge itself was pretty good with plenty of seating, a good view of the tarmac, business center, a kids play area and even a shower. It does puzzle me however who actually gets to use the lounge since the lounge is on the international wing of the airport and MAS does not serve any international destination from Penang.

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[calvinoeh]

Bangkok to Beijing on TG

Our flight from Penang parked at a domestic gate so we had to be bused to the international terminal. It took an annoying 15 minutes for the bus ride and the walk through security rescreening and the transit area before we were in the Thai Royal Spa lounge for our 30 minute neck and shoulder massage. My back was killing me the entire week and the massage did wonders even though it was cut short by about 5 minutes so we would make our flight to Beijing. We only had an hour plus layover in Beijing.

As we made our to the departure gate which was one of the last ones in C-gate, I tried to set the expectation to Lydia that the seats and IFE were not going to be that good since we were probably going to be on the old 744 especially since we’ve tried the F cabin before previously. I caught a glimpse of our plane from a far and noticed the 2 engines on each wing so we probably didn’t get “TGed” and our flight was still going to be a 744. I was pleasantly surprised that when we reached the gate to see that yes the plane did have 2 engines on each wing but it didn’t have the 744 upper deck hump. We got “TGed” to an Airbus 346 which had better seats and IFE in all cabins. The only downside was that I didn’t bother double checking our seats when we checked in at Penang assuming we had our pre-booked upper deck seats. We ended up with middle seats and would have preferred window seats for the view.

Business class was pretty much full on this flight with only a couple of empty seats. Pillows, blankets, headphones, menus and amenity kit were waiting for us in the seats when we got to our seats.

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[calvinoeh]

Hotel G Beijing

We stayed at the Hotel G Beijing for our first night taking advantage of the Hotel G mistake on booking.com where a $200 USD room was available for 200 Chinese Yuan or ~$30 USD inclusive of breakfast. What a deal! Too bad I could only get those rates for just our first night in Beijing. I must commend the hotel for honoring the mistake especially since they even allowed the 4 others on this trip who arrived at ~8 am to check-in early.

Hotel G is one of those cool, stylish and modern hotels which reminded me of the Vie in Bangkok. We later found out that the random colors seen in the picture could be changed individually by people in their rooms. The hotel was somewhat hard to find with most cab drivers not knowing where the hotel is. We would recommend printing a map and telling the cab driver the main road that the hotel is on. We personally had to hunt around a couple of minutes before spotting the hotel.
Hotel Lobby

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[calvinoeh]

Exploring Beijing

We had 3 bright and sunny days in Beijing. Sure it was still freezing cold with temperature close to zero Celcius but I heard that it was a rarity to see blue skies in Beijing. My first impressions of Beijing was how surprisingly modern, clean and somewhat organized the city is. I'm not sure where got I the misconception from but I was expecting Beijing to be loud and chaotic which really wasn't the case. It wasn't the uber organized Hong Kong or Singapore but reminded me of cities like Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.

The one thing to get used to however is crossing with streets. Even with pedestrian crossings, it was an adventure to make sure you don't get knock down by an incoming car. Cars have right of way in China.

During the 3 days, we did the must-do tourist attractions such as visiting the Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, Olympic Park and the Forbidden Palace in addition to the endless visits to the malls and eating around. I'll leave you with some pictures for now but I'll post more details on the visit to the Great Wall, Temple of Heavan and Forbidden Palace in upcoming posts.

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[sqdazz]

thanks for the report so far!! The Thai 737-400 is looking very tired, and they could do with a bit of an update on the business class service. Proper plates for the main instead of casserole dish is my first request.

[calvinoeh]

thanks for the report so far!! The Thai 737-400 is looking very tired, and they could do with a bit of an update on the business class service. Proper plates for the main instead of casserole dish is my first request.

Yea the 737 is old and the food could be better but I was really surprised on how comfortable the seats were. Wouldn't mind sitting on them for a 3-4 hour flight..

[calvinoeh]

Exploring Beijing - The Great Wall at Mutianyu

There are three popular spots to visit the Great Wall from Beijing. Badaling would be the closest but it is supposedly the most touristy. Simatai is the furthest away but the less restored which is good for those who want to see the wall as close to it's original state. We ended up choosing to go the wall at Mutianyu since it was a good in between option - less than an hour drive from Beijing and less touristy and packed if compared to Badaling.

To get to Mutianyu, one needs to rent a car and driver that will take you there and wait for you when you explore the wall. There are many driver recommendations on tripadvisor and flyertalk and we picked one that ended up being good. Send me an email if you want the contact for the driver we used.

We set off for Mutianyu even before the sun was up at 6.30 in the morning. We got to Mutianyu right as the sun was coming up and it made for some stunning views. There are 3 ways up to the wall - a cable car, a ski lift type ride or you could hike/walk up. We chose the ski lift ride as for a couple of reminbi more, it includes a ride down on the toboggan slide (more on that later).

Since we were there early, there were only a couple of other tourists around. The tour buses haven't arrived yet. At certain parts of the wall, we were the only ones around which made the experience so much more enjoyable and peaceful. Pictures that we took earlier in the morning also turned out better as there was no haze.

We spent the next couple of hours just walking (more like hiking) a long the wall. One some parts, it did get pretty steep and it was challenging especially in the cold. Lydia and I gave up when we reached the cable car stop where as my bro and sis in laws continued to the end.

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[calvinoeh]

Exploring Beijing - The Forbidden Palace

The Forbidden Palace was a 15 minute walk from our second hotel in Beijing, the Novotel Beijing Peace. It's also easily accessible via the Beijing Subway. We made a quick detour to check out Tiananmen Square which is located opposite the north entrance before heading into the Forbidden Palace. To better control traffic by trying to force the crowd in one direction, there is only one entrance on the north side with the exit on the south side.

I was amazed by the number of people visiting the Forbidden Palace. There must have been at least a couple of thousand but the crowd did thinned out once we got deeper into the palace grounds.


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[calvinoeh]

Exploring Beijing - Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven was the last major attraction we visited while we were in Beijing. From our hotel in Wangfujing, it is an easy 15 minute subway ride away. The closest stop is Tiantandongmen. We arrived around shortly after breakfast around 10 am and as usual, there was already a crowd at the entrance but the line for tickets wasn't too long.

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[calvinoeh]

Novotel Beijing Peace

Since the mistake rate for Hotel G was only available for our first night in Beijing, we moved to Novotel Beijing Peace for the rest of our time in Beijing. I chose the hotel primarily for its ideal location right by Wangfujing (wish we had booked at the Hilton though but it costs 3 time mores) giving us easy access to shopping, restaurants, subway and the Forbidden Palace.

We arrived early at the hotel at ten in the morning but the only rooms available at that time were smoking rooms which we declined. There was no mention of my Aclub Platinum status during check-in and had my request for upgrade rejected citing that the hotel as operating at full capacity. I wasn't having any expectation for any upgrades since it wasn't per the Aclub rules and hearing about similar experiences both on flyertalk and tripadvisor.


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[calvinoeh]

Food in Beijing

here's just so much good food in Beijing albeit on the more oily and salty side of things! Food options range from cheap street food to high end fine dining. One of the major highlights definitely was the hunt for the best Beijing Roast Duck that we tried at three different restaurants.


Other highlights included the street food at Wangfujing street. There is actually two spots for this with the one on the main street looking much cleaner and organized although at a slightly higher price. We were also adventurous enough to try some scorpions, beetles and starfish. Let's just say it's just a one time experience.

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[calvinoeh]

Beijing to Harbin on Air China

Air China operates only 2 class cabins on most domestic flights in China with the front of the plane tagged as first. There is no business class. Since our BMI redemption was for business class, we were relegated to the back of the plane for the flight to Harbin.

We arrived at the airport around 5.30 am for our early 7.30 am flight. I'm surprised that there's such a lack of Star Alliance related signage at Beijing Airport!We didn't see any signs for Star Gold check in and the lines for economy counters were already long. We tried checking in at one of the automated machines but failed. We eventually were able to check-in at the Air China First Class domestic counters after showing my Star Gold card.

After passing through security, we made our way to the Air China business class lounge. The lounge is pretty big which adequate seating although the furniture was somewhat drab. Instant noodles and packaged snacks were the only food available when we arrived. Soon after, breakfast was offered at the dining area which consisted of only Chinese choices like rice porridge and pastries.

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[calvinoeh]

Food in Harbin.

Similar Beijing, there's a TON of food to try in Harbin. However, we did leave Harbin somewhat disappointed with the food quality. Most of the food here was even oilier and saltier than the food in Beijing.


There are multiple food courts in the shopping malls around town and the food courts would be the easiest way to sample a multitude of choices. I personally liked the food court at the "new 100" shopping mall. I enjoyed the meat wrapped pancakes and wok fried Sichuan style dish where you can choose the meats and vege to be wok fried similar to a Mongolian style grill. There's also a pretty good dessert stall where I liked the red-bean yogurt dessert. Yum..

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[CarbonMan]

What were the temperatures like in Harbin? I had wanted to go 3 years ago but was talked out of it by my sis-in-law.