Beijing

Sept 13-20



Dont plan to blog each day of this trip, but I will try to do at least one per city. 10/17 update: major blogging fail. Beijing is my only complete one so far. My tendency to write overly long posts prevents me from even getting started haha.

Assorted Beijing thoughts:

Forbidden city is huge and pretty much requires a day's energy to do. Going up Jingshan park next door is well worth it for the 360 views over Beijing, including all of the forbidden city.

There is sooo much to see in Beijing, and it takes many days, partly because so many of the places are just HUGE-- forbidden city, summer palace, temple of heaven, beihai park, etc. Their size is also surprising considering how crowded Beijing is and how they're basically all in the city center.

Beijing itself is huge. We coined a new term, a Beijing Block. Maps are deceptive.

Beijing has developed super cool artsy districts since I was last here. 798 (in converted warehouses and factories) and nanluoguxiang (in the hutongs aka old Beijing allyways) are recommended.

I'm spoiled by MPK Chinese food, making it hard to be blown away by the food here, other than the prices. 50 cent 22 oz beers, I can do.

That said, I love Peking Duck! And jian Bing, these egg pancake things.

I had Peking duck at a well regarded place called Da Dong. First of all their menu is a thick bible of food, consisting of professional pictures of every single dish and takes like 25 minutes to go through. Also there were all these banners everywhere saying Chef Dongs Sea Cucumber with a huge picture of said sea cucumber next to it. Google sea cucumber to see why this is humorous.

A lot less spitting and some semblance of line forming, compared to 2004. Driving also seems more orderly.

I really like my hotel, Hotel Kapok. Good location rogjt next to the forbidden city and value for money, even if taxis can't find it for the life of them.

I went down a super sketchy toboggan slide at the great wall and it was actually AWESOME. It would never fly in the states of anywhere concerned about legal liability. I love it.

I'm glad I chose to go to Mutianyu section of the wall. It was beautiful and not crowded at all.

Jeans with exaggerated creases and bleach spots are still very in here. The ones at the ankles are particularly curious. Girls walk around the city in high heels.





I see a lot more little boys than little girls

The dancing women in the parks/streets are awesome.

Split baby pants have not gone out of style. Neither has babies peeing in the middle of the street.

A lot of the police/guards here look super young, like 13-15 years old.

Surprised that the banks are open on Sundays. But then again why shouldn't they be?

It can be hard to catch a cab, something I dont remember from last time.

While the temperature has been relatively pleasant and consistent, the sky conditions have changed drastically from day to day... Thick brown smog when we got in, bright clear blue skies the next day, followed by grey smog and totally overcast days.

I watched the national parade in HK and marveled at the beautiful weather--such luck! Later met a girl who was in BJ at the time who has a conspiracy theory on this, as she swears the sky was grey that day in her area :P. Everyone loves a conspiracy theory.

The Olympic park is nice. The Olympics really changed Beijing and China in many ways.

Personal freedoms: Day to day life seems like anywhere else, including the states. Its not like everyone is living under oppression all the time, which I feel like is the impression a lot of people have. At the same time, you try to login to Facebook and Twitter and Blogger and realize you can't.

We watched a movie about the civil war in China where Mao unified China and the Communist party gained control. It was a big deal, ads everywhere and almost every Chinese celeb had some Cameo in it. It was surprisigly well filmed and relatively fair. Well, based on my limited understanding of things anyway. The story ended pre-cultural revolution.

Trinkets for sale:



Chinese people seem to generally like Obama, except / until he allowed the tire tariffs.



-- Mobile post