Airport Arrival - International Terminal - Terminal 3

Arrival at Beijing airport:

 

The Beijing airport arrival hall was absolutely MASSIVE, it was really stunning.  The interior was completely open, and seemed like it would be as big as an enclosed stadium.  There was a huge mural painting done in black ink on what looked like paper.  This mural was at least 30 feet long--it was beautiful.  It looked almost 3d.

 

We arrived at almost 1AM local time, so it was almost completely empty.  We were checked through customs (I assume) by some very bored-looking Chinese workers who spoke very little--they asked no questions of us, just checked us through, then they closed their desks and left.  I was expecting some questions at least--but I suppose they were too tired to care all that much. 

 

We took a small train to the baggage claim area, found our luggage, then exited the terminal.  We each had one large checked bag and one small carry-on bag, plus one extra bag full of donated clothing for the orphanage--9 bags in total.  We found our driver, who was holding up a sign with "Hopkins" written on it.  He spoke no English, but was all smiles, and was very cheerful, even though it was the middle of the night.  He seemed a little surprised by the amount of luggage when he found us, and once we got to his car, we knew why--he had no idea that we had so much, and he'd brought...a Hyundai Sonata.  When we got to his car, he just started giggling while he set about squeezing us and all of our luggage into the car.  He fit three bags in the trunk, three in the front seat, three in the back.   Chaz and I sat in the back, Chaz with Jeremy on his lap, me with Maddy on mine.  We all found it hysterically funny--it was like clowns in a Volkswagen.  I was a little alarmed about being unable to be buckled up--but we were wedged in so tightly I don't think we could have been unwedged by an accident! 

 

This was our first experience with a Chinese driver.  The Chinese drivers seem to be very fluid--turn signals seem to be used infrequently--they don't ask to move over and wait patiently for an opening, they just squeeze in when they need to.  Cars cut each other off constantly, lane divides aren't respected, some smaller cars even decide to go the wrong way if it will save them some time.  Honking is constant, but it seems to be done for communicating rather than for expressing anger--a driver would honk to tell others to get out of his way, honk to tell another car that the other car is about ready to hit him, honk to tell another car that the other car is going to get hit because *this* driver is going no matter what, honk to warn other drivers not to change lanes, etc.  I didn't see anyone yelling at anybody else or expressing any anger, but there sure was an AWFUL lot of honking.  Even with rules of the road being treated as rough guidelines, cars barely missing each other constantly, I saw very, very few accidents.   The drivers all seem to just cope with the traffic and everybody gets to where they need to go--miraculously, to my mind.

We will post videos of the traffic in a link later.  You'll be amazed.