19 Oct'11 in Beijing for Food Processing Workshop

From 19 October to 8 November, I'll be in Beijing for a workshop training. I think this is a brand new thing for me. I haven't really joined an international food processing workshop before, so I am going to write down all my exciting experiences here, included the food-related and non-food-related things.

**) = a sign to indicate that this experience is new for me.

I made it to Beijing again. It was my first time to travel to Beijing alone. 

Was my first time also to sit on a Z train. **)

Z, stands for zhi da 直达, only stops on the last station. My Z18 goes directly from Changsha to Beijing West Station without any stop in the middle. It only takes 13 hours. I assume Z18 and Z17 are designed for businessman to travel between these two cities. I only saw 1 little girl on my cart. The rest are men and women in suites. It was a peaceful trip, the seat was comfortable enough (soft seat, 软座）and people seemed to be busy with their business. Some men made a business phone call, dealing with partners, some of them opened their laptop and read some articles, while I preferred to read China Daily. 

Arrived in Beijing by 8 AM, delayed 1 hour from the schedule, I was picked up by Ella and brought to our hotel by taxi. 

I've been to Beijing West Train Station for 4 times, and it was never easy to get a cab there. The line was incredibly long and the taxis are not enough. Today I was picked up by local Beijingers, thus she took me cross the road and took the taxi from the opposite side **), which actually also forbidden. But, it saved a lot of time. I'll remember this next time!

The trip from the west station to the hotel at Chaoyang district was the longest taxi ride for me in China. 果然首都堵车堵得很厉害啊！**)

Funny experience:

On the ride, the taxi suddenly turned to a hotel stopped RIGHT in front of the door the hotel. Ella, who picked me up, and the driver got off from the cab. I thought it was the hotel. As I opened the door they asked me to stay inside the cab because they just wanted to use the restroom. By less than 1 minute they both got back to the car and felt relieved. :-D

Last one, I found out that 15C in Beijing is still warmer than 15C in Changsha.