Cody and Eliza flew to Beijing for 3 days/2 nights then to Tokyo for 3 days/3 nights then to Singapore for 1 day/1 night before returning home to Perth. The flights were all in business class with the exception of the last flight from Singapore to Perth. The itinerary took us through Singapore in both directions and we flew a combination of Singapore Airlines, China Airways, and All Nippon Airways for our flights. The itinerary was PER-SIN-PEK(stopover)-HND(destination); NRT-SIN-PER. We paid 70,000 United Mileage Plus miles + $138.50 for each business class ticket (140,000 United miles + $277.00 total) for the roundtrip tickets. Had we booked these tickets paying cash, it would have cost over $8,000 each in business class and over $4,000 each in economy.
For the hotel, we redeemed 42,000 Club Carlson points for 2 nights in a suite (including free breakfast buffet and lounge privileges) at the Radisson Blu Beijing. Normally, one night costs 42,000 points; however, as we have the Club Carlson Visa card from US Bank, we get a one free night added onto our booking (either paying with cash or booking with points), so it came out to 21,000 Club Carlson points per night.
With our US passports, we were free to stay in Beijing for 72 hours without having to apply for a visa as long as we didn't fly into and out of Beijing from the same city (we flew in from Singapore and out to Tokyo, so it worked out fine for us).
We arrived early Friday morning in Beijing and took the train to the stop nearest our hotel. We showered then met our friend, Joe Bollard (who had just come off a week long business trip in Tianjin, China) so we could hang out for the day. We booked a driver to take us to the Great Wall of China, which was about a 1:45 drive from the city and we took chair lifts up to the base of the wall which was at the top of a pretty tall hill. We made it onto the wall and decided to walk to the end, which was much more difficult than we had anticipated. The steps were steep and tall. We got a good workout climbing up the hills and by the time we made it back to our starting point after a couple hour hike we were ready to sit down and relax. They had an alpine slide that we took from the base of the wall to the bottom of the mountain, which was fun.
We then made our way to an escape/puzzle room called Omega Room where we were locked in a room with clues, puzzles, combinations, and riddles and had to find our way out within 60 minutes. We had done one of these in Singapore last year and loved it, so we decided to give it a try in Beijing. The room didn't disappoint. Although, we didn't make it out in the allotted time and needed some clues to get through it, we had a good time.
Other impressions of Beijing that we had after the first day were that the smog was every bit as thick as had been described to us and we could see why many of the Chinese residents wore masks over their mouth and nose. We were surprised at how cheap the taxis were (~$6 for a 30 minute taxi ride), but we were shocked at how difficult it was to get a taxi, especially at night
We woke up early on Saturday and met Joe at the famed Silk markets. We helped Joe pick out some stuff before sending him off to catch his flight home (his wife, Tori, was watching our kids for the 7 days we were away). When Joe left we did some shopping of our own. We bought a huge garbage bag full of shoes (9 pairs of Tom's shoes for Eliza and the kids for about $8 each, Ugg boots for Cody for $20, 2 pairs of Diesel casual shoes for Cody for $15 each, Nike cross training shoes for each of the kids for $15 each, and 2 pairs of Converse shoes for Eliza for $15 each), and nearly filled 2 large checked bags full of clothes, Christmas presents, DVDs, and other stuff.
After shopping, we went to TGIFridays for a late lunch then headed to an Acrobatics show.
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