On Saturday I arrived back in Beijing for the first time in almost 5 years (which was only a day trip), arriving at Beijing's newest and biggest airport (PKX, not PEK, which is the old one for anyone who needs to know) that is far out of town and quite impressive (though also mostly domestic flights so arriving with an international flight was very fast). Arriving one doesn't see much of an airport compared to departing but it looked big!
Flying to China nowadays is very simple with just an online health form (no need for any vaccination records either) and there are no restrictions anywhere in the country any more (though many staff in restaurants or other shops still wear masks either for hygiene reasons or maybe to stop themselves catching COVID during the recent second wave that apparently infected everyone again 6 months after the first wave infected the whole country in a matter of weeks).
Over a few days I did make it around quite a lot of Beijing for various reasons, enjoying running one morning in the Olympic Park and Forest, taking some people sightseeing and seeing some friends where I could. Physically not much has changed from my point of view, and actually many others agreed with me (though other parts of China may have changed more). Beijing had already mostly developed in the 2000s and 2010s. A few more subway lines have come up, but few new buildings or roads (there was not much space for any more roads or buildings and most had already been built). The air was good (which may have been luck, but I am told it generally is quite good and has been for quite a few years).
The shared bikes are still very common (the ones that took off about a decade ago) though using any of the apps to rent them is very hard without a Chinese ID card (which is also needed to use a ticket machine for the subway, though there is a manned desk to sell tickets to foreigners). A very noticeable difference (and I had been forewarned by a friend) is the insane amount of electric cars everywhere, many of which are by companies one has never heard of (though there are a lot of Teslas and BYDs as well). I think I read somewhere that maybe a third of new car sales in China are electric nowadays.
There is a strange feeling coming back to a place that was home for so long and seeing everything still there - places like Jamaica Blue of 85 degrees coffee shops; the same hotels, shopping malls and office buildings. I don't know why I expected differently, but I did. Of course if I had come last year I would have had a different experience with the health code to go in or out of anywhere, frequent COVID testing and the like (in fact most of my friends had barely seen each other for 3 years either).
Security has always been tight in Beijing with police everywhere and lots of cameras and it didn't seem much worse on the surface, though to get close to Tiananmen Square you need to show an ID card and then to actually walk through the Square you need to book online (and it closes at 9pm), which is quite weird when cars and bikes and buses can still drive through whenever they want.
The Internet is still very closely restricted so there is no news from Western sources, no chatting or social media from Western companies and so on. Kenyan online media is still unblocked though! Internet is very cheap, and of course speeds are amazing, even without a 5G phone. Prices don't seem to have increased much from what I can tell. Taxis, water and even food seems similar, which is a little surprising (in Kenya prices are noticeably higher nowadays than 5 years ago) but maybe should not be suprising.
And the food is still incredible. Xinjiang food, Hai Di Lai hot pot, Beijing Duck.... the service is exceptional too.
The trip was mostly for work so there was not much time to do any sightseeing. However we did try to go to Tiananmen Square, but failed. After getting through a checkpoint that wanted to see ID cards or passports we were then told we need a (free) ticket that we can get online, but that was only possible before 9pm. However, as there are several roads going across the Square, we did just get back on the bus and drive through (cyclists can also easily cycle through) and nothing looked different. We also had a chance to go to the Great Wall for an hour and a half of hiking. We only went 1km along and 1km back, but it was a particularly steep section at Juyong Pass, where there are a small gap in the mountains. The views are nice and there were very few tourists (there were a lot of CCTV cameras though).
