My Nexus Holiday - 2

Day 2This consisted of a few obligatory Beijing sights - Tiananmen, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and an acrobatic performance in the evening.
The tour guide talked a bit about the background of the tour and why it was so cheap. He said a lot of things and the horn-friendly motorists of Beijing didn't help with clarity. I think he was trying to say that there wasn't any government subsidy and that it was all sponsored by businesses. He didn't say whether they were government-owned businesses though. The fact that he said part of the tour was to show the Chinese diaspora that China had become great and developed sounded suspicious. No business would want to do that… Surely that's the role of government.
There's daily 'fines' of USD99 for non attendance as his paymasters require a headcount through the stores. Also if you 'borrow' an entry ticket to one of the sights for whatever reason, he requires you to return it.
Protip: choose the right side of the bus – the legroom can be better due to the different pitch to accommodate the rear door.

Day 3
The day started off with sightseeing at the Summer Palace. Which essentially means take photos.

There was an unannounced but compulsory CNY10 fee for the boat ride across. Compulsory because of time constraints and the logistics of keeping the group together.
Silk quilts were interesting…

We stayed there for quite some time. Sales were slow and people were quick to return to the coach. It looked like the tour guide was copping some behind-his-back criticism about the stinginess of his group.
After lunch there was 'fashion shopping district' for a whole two hours, twenty minutes. Hiding out at McDonalds meant there was a seat and table to use. The highlight of the day was seeing a coach attempt a U-turn on an undivided main road, here:
They turned that bus around after 75 seconds of hearing horns and three-point turn (maybe more points).

Last for the day was Wangfujing. I swear those metal plates on the road were there last time I went, six years ago. Makes a huge racket when the buses drive over them.
Tip: Bring something to keep you occupied. About three hours' worth of stuff should do it for this day.

My Nexus Holiday - 1

Have you seen one of those ultra-cheap tour packages for Beijing and wondered what you really get for $99?
TL;DR? Although the trip is supported by excessively-long shopping sections, you can still be a winner in terms of value. The shopping sections can be a waste of time for some depending on how you value your time abroad.
Day 1
The hotel was a total pain to find. Beijing addresses still have a long way to go. It's rather inappropriate to have an address on the ring road when that chunk of land has been subdivided into little neighbourhoods, and the taxi drivers are themselves unsure of how to get there. Something like suburbs might also be useful, rather than huge districts that only give you a feel for which side of town you should be looking at.
Protip: look it up on Google Maps first. Leave the page open on your laptop in case you want to refer to it while underway.

The Maya Island Hotel
I have a few thoughts about this place. Mainly that it's a good try. Why is it a good try and not a success?

• Poor location in being in the middle of a business park with no metro station nearby.
• Poor build with some strange decisions made.
• Trying too hard with the theme rather than making the hotel work.

The staff were good. There was a lot of 'stuff' in the room for keeping - but I think some of these were replaced too often. One does not need new soap or slippers everyday. Bath lotion, shampoo, conditioner, moisturiser and a two-blade disposable razor with tube of shaving cream were notable extras. The shower/bath had some design flaws which meant that water pooled on the ledge and could not drain properly, making the floor wet.
Protip: sacrifice a small towel to act as a plug.
There's mention of saving the environment by indicating that you don't need towels replaced. To do this one is supposed to hang the towels on the towel rack. A towel rack is notably absent from the bathroom fitout. Black tea bags are absent from the table. There are only enough ingredients to make (sweet) black coffee.
The rest of the hotel seems under-utilised. The gym was not in use at the times I walked past. There's also some massage parlour and spa that seemed rather quiet. A restaurant on level two provided breakfast each day. Differences from day-to-day seemed to be on what was unavailable rather than what other dishes were added. Management seemed to be learning how best to fry eggs during the week and shifted from cooked-to-order to undercooked in a tray.

Still, not a bad deal when bundled in that package. Normally there'd be no reason to live in a hotel out that way though.

Question

How can there be a smoking room at the gate at an airport? Everyone is supposed to have been security-screened and not allowed to take lighters beyond that point. Yet the smoking room is too full and people are overflowing into the corridor.

China Southern Hilarity

This was just a rolling commentary:

Preflight
Old people keep getting up and walking - screws around with the flight attendants' counting.
There's only shared monitors. I suppose this reduces the computational load and then they don't have to license as many films. I think it's just cheap - not really related to politics. haha
Lots of other passengers attempting to flaunt status symbols. it doesn't work if everyone has an LV patterned accessory of some sort.
China Southern were nice enough to provide a small bag with earplugs, folding comb, toothbrush, toothpaste, eyemask and socks. The earplugs were very useful.

Underway

• 2232 - push off
• 2245 - people using toilets during taxi. Flight attendants telling them to hurry. Is this part of the Chinese way of expressing freedom - through petty acts potentially resulting in chaos?
• 2246 - too late: the plane is on the runway and taking its time getting airborne. It's an A330. The flight attendants told them to stay inside the toilet.
• 2250 - it turned out to be an old man
• 2303 - An old lady came back having refilled her bottle. WTH. How did she get that past security screening? What if you took a coffee mug through? What if it didn't have a lid and had a photo on the side? hmm
• 2308 - Communal monitors are rolling advertisements. This is the new China with glorified motor vehicle ownership.
• 2312 - Flight attendants struggled a bit with moving the cart. One spilled juice.

Interestingly, the beverages were mostly Chinese. Just Juice was the only Australian brand I could see. Coca Cola and Sprite were Chinese versions. None of the drinks were chilled. Why would anyone want to drink Chinese milk? Odd. Also, there's not enough hot water for tea. That's quite bad.

There was too much film lag so I didn't watch the whole film. Something about a USAAF officer called Robert in China having crashed. He fancies a lass called Yangshuo. There's in some rural area and people ride around on horses with bolt-action rifles. Artificial romance ensues even though there's a bit of a language barrier.

Guangzhou Airport
Now this part really was crazy. The international to domestic transfer security screening had only one frame scanner. Everyone had to be pat down even after going through. There were plenty of queue-jumpers due to the prolonged process. The airport is too big so there were electric vehicles to shuttle us to the terminal. Kind of like oversized golf-buggies.

Domestic Flight
There was way too much plastic packaging on all the food. The food itself was rather ordinary, but expected.

Additional hilarity provided by a lady trying to help herself to food on the card, pissing off the flight attendant who rebuffed her attempts with measured words.


Another good one is the sound tubes. The sound is actually produced in the armrest, where one plugs the contraption in (you can hear it if you put your ear up against the hole). Wasn't much use again as there was really only advertisements and a laggy film running. Seems like a good idea for being cheap and nasty.