7 January 2008: Getting There

Chris and I flew out of Melbourne airport, heading for Beijing, with a short stop in Sydney. Flying time approximately 12 hours, 30 minutes. That was the plan at least.
When we arrived at Melbourne airport, we discovered that the Qantas baggage handling system was not operating correctly, and everyones details had to be manually entered into the computer.  It was like a "DOS" system, every command needing to be entered using its shortcut code. There was a very long line of people waiting to check in, which we took a position at the back of. After waiting for about 45 minutes, the line seemed to only be moving very slowly. The airline staff were calling out urgent flight numbers to move to the front of the que for priority service.
Our flight to Sydney was called out as an urgent flight, about 45 minutes prior to it's scheduled departure. Almost every hand in the line went up! We were all waiting for the same flight! The look on the flight attendant's face was one of shock and disbelief. She quickly arranged for two more luggage counters to be opened just for people on our flight to Sydney.
Everyone was checked through very quickly after that.
When we got onto the plane, we sat on the tarmac for at least 30 minutes while all the last minute luggage was loaded onto the plane. We arrived in Sydney late.
Fortunately, our connecting flight was also running behind schedule, so we had no problem catching that flight.
Sydney to Beijing was fairly uneventful, except that the interactive VOD (Video On Demand) system was not working, so we were stuck with very little choice for entertainment. I did manage to watch Rattatouli, which was a really good movie. I also watched parts of Bourne Ultimatum, and some of a film called "Fracture".
The lack on entertainment, and the cramped seating began to wear about half way through the flight, with Chris declaring that he's "had enough now" and recommend we got an urgent upgrade to Business class!
Arrival in Beijing went smoothly, we were the last plane to land, the airport looked deserted. We were sitting in the 4th last row, so it took a little time for us to exit the plane. At least we had an airbridge, so there was only a small taste of the outside air temperature sneaking through the gap where it joins the plane.  We made our way through customs, where a nice lady checked we had all the correct paperwork to enter China, and stamped our passports.  Chris found our bags straight away on the carousel, so we were quickly off through security and ready to find our way to the Hotel.  I withdrew some cash from a HSBC ATM, (for once it is good to bank with them, I'm in another country and its like being at home). 
We then make our way to the taxi rank.  There we had no problem finding a nice taxi driver to take us to our hotel. We had orgainsed for the address to be printed in Chinese characters before we left (thanks Ryan) as the Taxi drivers here don't speak English, it made it very easy for him to know where we needed to go.  80CNY ($12.50) (including 10CNY for the toll way) and we were there. We are staying at the Novotel Peace in Beijing, which is right near the center of town. I guess it would be like staying at the Langham hotel (location-wise) in Melbourne. It's only a short walk to many famous attractions, and colorful nightlife.