Travelling
What can I expect upon entering the airport?
Beijing Capital Airport is a modern, medium sized airport (the new airport, one of the most modern airports on our planet will be open to the public in mid 2008). After leaving the aircraft you proceed to the health and immigration counters. Depending on the arrival bridge, this takes approx. 3 to 7
minutes.

What kinds of formalities am I likely to face?
On board of your arriving flight the crew distributes 3 forms to each passenger:
a) a health declaration
b) the immigration form
c) customs declaration form.
Before arring at the immigration counter you have to hand over the health declaration form to an officer and then proceed to immigration. Beijing airport has a huge immigration area with at least 30 or more counters, separated into counters for Chinese and for foreigners. If there's a huge crowd at the foreigner's counters the friendly immigration officers from the Chinese - only counters wave people to their boots in order to speed up the immigration process.

After immigration you have to go downstairs to the conveyor belts where you'll pick up your checked-in baggage. Then go to customs, hand over the customs declaration form (usually customs doesn't check arriving foreigners as long as the flights are from North America or Europe).

Are there any banks or other facilities for exchanging currency in the airport?

After you have left the customs area you enter the arrival lobby of Beijing Capital Airport. There you find several banks that change your money. All well known Western currencies are
accepted as well as Japanese Yen, Hongkong $, Thai Bath, Singapore $ etc.

Is it better if I obtain some Chinese Yuan before arriving?

The Chinese Yuan (CNY) is a semi convertible currency. It is accepted for exchange in countries of East Asia (Japan, RoK, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand etc).

You are permitted to im- or export not more than 20,000 CNY when arriving/leaving the country.

Will I be able to access some/many/most services in English at the airport?

All signs at the airport are bilingual (Chinese and English) Official services at the airport are all available in English.

Beware of touts or people who offer you their service. Don't accept any assistance from those people. Their 'service' is illegal and always more expensive than the official services. Be kind, never rude and tell them that you don't need any help.

Are there generally any problems involved in hailing a taxi?

When you leave the airport, cross the first car lane and you will see several taxi stops.
There is always a crowd waiting for taxis. Go over there and you will be driven by an
officially licensed taxi to the hotel. It is really helpful if you have a name card or address of the hotel where everything is written in Chinese. This avoids confusion.