BEIJING - The flight from Singapore took about 5hrs to reach Beijing. The plane was packed like on most SQ flights. The last time I was in Beijing was more than 7 years ago. I don't remember the city being covered with so much smog. It would be amazing to see how the municipal government plans to rid of the smog covered city especially since the Beijing Olympics is only next year.
Apart from that, there are many foreigners everywhere trying to catch a glimpse of what ancient Beijing was. Beijing has a rich culture and for new comers it would be good to visit the Great Wall of China, Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square, Summer Palace, etc. I have visited these places of interest before and would like to revisit them again next trip.
I stayed at the Trader Hotel (part of the Shangri-La group) @ 1 Jian Guo Men Wai Avenue. The Shangri-La group is owned by a rich Malaysian tycoon family - Kuok, whose family are called the sugar king. They now based themselves out of Hong Kong. The hotel is situated very central and of course near the customer's location. Beijing is easy to navigate as they have 3 big Ring roads around the Forbidden City but the traffic is just bad with about 4 million vehicles plying the Beijing roads and not much of public transport.
The air pollution could be caused by the 4million vehicles plying the roads and also the numerous constructions around the city. Beijing is booming with huge foreign investments pouring into its economy. The Chinese government is also pumping cash into Beijing to built up the city infrastructure to be ready for the Beijing Olympics on 8.8.08. This is a very auspicious Chinese date - signifying great prosperity.
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