Beijing to Moscow in 48 Hours, Club Med is Now Chinese-Owned, and Why Exit Rows Suck
Beginning the new year seems like deja vu when it comes to reading Beijing-related travel news.
Construction on Beijing's new, third airport is underway. Yes. We knew that. The news that it had received approval to proceed was promulgated as if it were in any doubt, and reported by top news agencies that way. Yawn.
Club Méditerranée, also known as Club Med, is now owned by China's Fosun International. Not only are we amazed that this company and concept are still in business, as 70s and tired as duck a l'orange, but we can't imagine what a Chinese company will now do with it. Except probably make billions.
Russia has announced that it will build a high-speed rail service that will be able to travel from Moscow to Beijing in 48 hours. Again we yawn deeply as this was reported late in 2014 but seen as perhaps too expensive to construct. And again, the great beneficiaries of this rail line are not Beijing or Moscow, but all the far-flung places in between. Going from Beijing to Lake Baikal in five hours would be unbelievably cool.
Exit rows on planes suck. They're set aside by airlines mostly for tall people who need the legroom. The reality is that you have nowhere to put your stuff, the flight attendant engages you in a staring contest during take-off and landing, which eliminates the possibility of discreetly turning on your phone wheels-down or continuing to read on your iPad. People come and stand in front of you when they want to walk around, and if you sit in a window seat, it's likely you actually have less legroom because the emergency door is in front of you. It also blows when some jackass from boarding group five pins your slim, carefully-placed carry-on bag to the back of the overhead compartment, rendering it inaccessible during a 13-hour flight. Your correspondent still prefers the first row on any plane after the taper towards the tail begins – it usually means one fewer seat in the row, creating a space where bags, computers, and other things can be conveniently placed. And for aircraft like the Boeing 777, taking the last row on the aircraft also means you can put your seat all the way back. Yes, deplaning will be slow, it's a choice between 13 hours of comfort in the air as opposed to about 45 minutes of waiting on the ground.
And with that, I prepare to head to the airport. One road flat safe. Especially for me.
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Email: stevenschwankert@thebeijinger.com
Twitter: @greatwriteshark
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