First time

[skylee]

Oh I should have. It was just that I had travelled a lot and generally had had no problems using English in non-English speaking countries. Spain was a real surprise ...

After some failures one night I went into a bar in Bilbao and just said the words "vino rosso" but very surprisingly the bartender understood and let me choose between a bottle of rose and a bottle of red wine. Blogged here and here.

[jbradfor]

According to Babel Fish, "red wine" is "vino rojo" and "beer" is "cerveza".

Which is why you should not rely on machine translations.

"red wine" is "vino tinto", not "vino rojo". At least in Mexico. I guess Spain could be different.

[adrianlondon]

It's the same (vino tinto) in Spain. However, despite the fact that Spanish for beer is cerveza (pronounced thervaytha) I always thought "beer" was a universally understood word.

Maybe not Madrid where one asks for "una caña" anyway.

[Hofmann]

Thread title: First time

My next thought: Please be gentle.

On topic: I would be surprised if anyone in a position where many people talk to them in an airport in Beijing didn't speak English. If not, they could probably get someone who could very quickly. That goes for people outside the airport too, but not as much.

[ksl0588]

When you arrive in the airport, is it easy to get a taxi to a hotel? Like what if you have a lot of luggages? Is it easy to communicate with them? (like what if they dont understand english) And around how much would i pay from airport to lets say xi jiao hotel or a hotel near blcu?

[gougou]

When you arrive in the airport, is it easy to get a taxi to a hotel?

Yes, there's a big queue, and there are signs pointing towards it starting from the arrival area. You can bring as much luggage as can fit in a Jetta, which can be quite a lot (especially if you're traveling alone).

Most taxi drivers won't speak English, so like several people suggested already, do have the Chinese name of where you're going to ready (ideally printed out).

[ksl0588]

Okay, how about the hotel, im planning to book in xijiao hotel once i arrive in the airport, do they have that? and is it easy to book? do they provide shuttle service to the hotel? its because i plan on staying in xijiao hotel for a couple of days til i find an apartment in hua qing jia yuan (hopefully a good price for a 2br)

[renzhe]

You will want to have the exact address and the name (in Chinese characters) of the hotel before you get there.

As people say, many people will speak English at the airport, but when you're travelling, it's generally a good idea not to assume to much and to prepare the most important things.