In Beijing

I had the 'Rough Guides' guide book with me at all times. It is the single most important tool for a backpacker. Most of the time, I would refer to it for information about the sites I visit as well as accurate information on how to get there in the first place.

The first few days of my trip there was fine. I mainly used the TH55 to view the high resolution photos I snapped with the trusty Sony DSC-F717. It allowed me to view the photos in their full size. This is important for me as I needed to determine which photos were blur so that I could retake them or delete them to make space for other photos.

While the F717 allowed me to magnify the pictures as well, the 3.7” screen on the TH55 makes it a whole lot easier on the eyes. My girlfriend found RescoViewer's slideshow feature to be especially useful. We always spend about 15 minutes looking through the pictures we took everyday and she was really happy with the results.

Beijing subway map

I initially stored some high resolution maps as well as the Beijing subway guide into the PDA. I found them extremely useful as I can easily pull out my TH55 to view the track, train times and pricing information. With that, I could proceed to the ticket counter without hesitation and get the right tickets.

Beijing Subway System

The subway ticketing system in Beijing is simple. It has a standard fare for each line, regardless of which station you stop at. If your stop requires a change of lines, then you'll be charged an additional fee. Nothing complicated to it at all – more so if you have the right information!

An Unfortunate Event

Something really bad happened on the 4th day of my trip. I lost my guide book while I was walking back to the hostel!

I was viewing photos on the F717 with the book under an arm. Somehow, I dropped the book without realizing it. Don’t even ask me how it happened because I really have no idea. In fact, I wasn't aware that I misplaced the book until the next morning!

For a moment, I was really devastated...

Okay, it was longer than a moment because it meant that I had nothing concrete to refer to for the rest of my trip! Well, I was not afraid that I would get lost and neither was I afraid that I might end up somewhere else. I was just afraid of losing time! Time is always crucial for me during such trips and I will always find ways to take the shortest routes to cut down on traveling time.

Beijing is really huge and every interesting site takes hours to visit. I really cannot afford to lose time. Furthermore, I usually rely on my legwork to get me around. A wrong direction could lead to hours of wasted time.

Despite how well I have equipped my TH55, I wasn't convinced that the information I had early synched into the TH55 would be useful enough for me to use. Come on, what could ever replace a book?

Luckily for me, I had already planned to go to the Bei Hai Park that day and I roughly knew how to get there by bicycle. Besides, I had a detailed map of central Beijing in my PDA. So, I went there as scheduled. But along the way, I kept thinking about my schedule for the following days.

Everything seemed disrupted. I just wasn’t convinced that my PDA was going to cut it, even though that’s the reason why I brought the PDA in the first place!