I clearly remember July 13, 2006 – one day before I left for Beijing, China- Sunny hot-day and I was running after a travel agent for visit visa of China. I was already rejected by the consulate because of prime requirement of invitation letter from Chinese government and even a travel agent who had promised me visa had failed. I was feeling totally down and was already on this visit compensation treat by my friend at Bar BQ Tonight.
Luckily I had gotten this delayed invitation letter from Beijing and I planned to give a shot to my luck. So I entered into Chinese consulate and there I saw this Pakistani lady and tried to seek her help in getting visa but she straightforwardly rejected and redirected me to Chinese lady who saw my documents and started comparing, in the meanwhile my heart was pounding and then I was surprised to see the same copy of Chinese letter with her that created a hope in me and she asked:
“You are going for the first time to China? Where is your bank statement?”
“I don’t have that right now but I can provide that to you in an hour.”
She said: “Ok get your passport with visa in evening after providing bank statement.”
Hmmm I was more than happy. Then I rushed to travel agent and came to know that there are no seats available in any direct flight on that day so I agreed to have a winding indirect flight and I got this strange and tenuous root of Karachi->Lahore->Bang Kong -> Beijing and then I was also told that check in time for the flight was within 30 minutes and Airport was a good hour away!
Basically, I was supposed to go to Beijing china in order to attend an IEEE region 10 student congress 2006 (R10SC2006) for four days (July 14-17); which was being organized by four universities of Beijing where delegates from almost all the world were supposed to come and I was eagerly waiting for this event to happen for one year.
After traveling in flight and waiting at airport for around 24 hours I reached at Beijing airport. Here comes the pain again, Chinese generally tend to be very incompatible with English and since getting to China was nowhere in my calendar one day before I was totally not prepared for the travel. So I forgot the digital cameras, congress and travel guidelines. So I had this un-usual expensive yet bargained taxi ride for $25 –I was initially quoted $50- to BUPT University. I traveled through this 20KM long highway to city on that scenic taxi ride and when I reached at BUPT another surprise stuck me because there was no one to receive the only delegate from Pakistan, all were at another university where 2nd day program was going on. I was roaming around in the one square KM university with my travel bag. I found one guy who knew English; he helped me a lot, besides spending his one hour in searching organizers he also made some calls for me as well. I had already few Chinese friends so I made calls and became very happy to get warm welcome from Xing Jin (Honorary Chair R10SC2006). After paying my registration fees and getting into my room I was asked to join the culture night. There I was surprised to hear “Kajra Re” song, 12 Indian delegates to the congress were dancing inside and they were the heart of culture night. After some time I saw this pretty girl coming to me; “Are you Om Perkash Batra from Karachi?” Yes “How you are my friend? How was your journey?” She was Sammy, one of my friends with whom I used to work together on the IEEE Region 10 Pen Pal club project. I had a conversation with her along with many other fellows, enjoyed the culture night and then we left for hotel. I was too tired and my roommate from New Zealand was also waiting for me, we had a little bed time chat before jumping into dreams.
We went to a university where we were warmly welcomed on the third day. We were supposed to play physical games, we had some tools to search some hidden points and report there, we were getting some score based on reporting time. All points were in the university which was more like a city in itself. Chinese are very caring, while running my team-mates were taking care of me and saying “careful.. careful … careful” again and again. That game was awesome; I was the member of Chinese team and surprisingly got 5th position and I was awarded one gift for that as well. Then we went to the Summer Palace which is spread on approximately 3 square KM and it took 4 hours for us to visit half of it. After getting tired we (me, Sammy and two Thai chaps) had a singing competition in our native languages. My voice is not that good but they were still happy with it, I don’t know how they managed to bear it.
On 4th day we had delegates’ presentation session which went good, every delegate in his/her presentation praised the much-obvious dedication of Chinese volunteers. After that we had a gift exchange session, again I had no gifts to exchange but I got many gifts from friends I made in three days but promised to send them gifts from Pakistan, which I fortunately did. Then we had a visit to Tieman Square which is also a beautiful place. That day congress was officially closed but still I had few days to visit Beijing. 5th day I was supposed to leave to see The Great Wall with some friends from China, Japan and New Zealand. It was fun to be there, the weather was awesome at the top and I got the HERO card as well, the statement written over there was “If you don’t climb the great wall, you are not he real hero”. There surprising moment was an old Chinese was climbing fast than a young boy. On remaining days I had a little shopping because Beijing is expensive, visit to Forbidden City, Ming Tombs, old temples and other famous places of Beijing. Then I came back to Karachi following “Beijing->Bang Kong-> Karachi” route, after reaching Karachi I directly went to my hometown “Ghotki”, so my total traveling time increased from 24 hours. This ended my journey.
Concluding it would be, Chinese are very hospitable, helpful and too much health-conscious. Their ethics background is strong; they use bi-cycles a lot. But the problems one might face over there are Food and language. Some of my pics in Beijing….!
