From China With Love

Ni Hao Beijing


After 24 hours of travel we finally arrived in Beijing. We have been struggling with jet lag but managed to get in a full day of sight seeing before crashing once again. In the two days we have been here, we haven't managed to make it to dinner yet, but tonite we plan to hit the town, instead of falling asleep before we could get back out the door.

Beijing is a large modern city, not that different from NYC at first glance. Full of modern skyscrapers, cars and people, 14 million to be exact. What distinguishes it is the haze, bicycles, and once you look up you notice many of the buildings have Chinese style roofs. It is also very monochromatic full of muted grays and browns. I'm sure winter is not helping this perception and we've been wondering if this is a byproduct of the cultural revolution.

Our hotel is in the business district and has all the western and eastern conveniences. We had been forewarned that the hardness of the Chinese bed is commiserate with the number of stars a hotel receives. Rock equals luxury! So, we were pleasantly surprised to have pretty comfy beds and a nice hotel. Breakfast is a very elaborate buffet with a Chinese side and an American one. I've been sampling the Chinese and had dumplings with a vinegar sauce yesterday and plan to get a little more daring and try congee today.

During our first day of site seeing we met our travel group, two families from Colorado, one from Georgia and one from Wisconsin and made our first stop at Tian'an Men Square and the Forbidden City. All I can say is that they are vast and pictures don't do them justice. The square itself is filled with people, mostly other tourists, almost all Asian and military and police officers. We learned a lot about the history but not surprisingly our tour guide neglected to mention it's most recent history and the one we westerners know best.

Passing out of Tian'an Men Square we ventured to the Forbidden City a palace home to Chinese emperors for nearly 500 years. It consists of 9,999 and 1/2 rooms. That's right folks, 9,999 and 1/2, something to do with lots of concubines, rooms that can only be used once and feng shui. I like to call it the Endless and Very Cold City because it is spread out through a series of enormous courtyards and the inside portions of the tour consisted of one room. The other thing we discovered during our touring was that the Chinese are fascinated by American kids. The children in our group were like little rock stars. People stopped them repeatedly to take photos with them, kiss them and touch them.

We thawed out over a delicious traditional Chinese style lunch and then went on to a silk factory. We concluded the day with a tour of an old style Beijing neighborhood called a Hutong, on rickshaw. The old Beijing style of living, versus todays multi-story apartment complexes, consists of four single story dwellings built around a courtyard off of narrow alleyways. We had an inside view by visiting Ms. Wu, a 70 year old woman who opens her home to tourists. The dwelling gave new meaning to the word tiny!

Today we are headed to the Great Wall and Olympic Stadium. More later. I have to get to breakfast before all the congee is gone!