The scale of Beijing is very surprising, kind of a cross between Paris, Moscow and Havana. Quickly liberated of notion that this was some sort of third world backwater joint. (It's probably a combination of third, second and first world). This has been kind of like being on the set of a Bob Hope "road" movie with a twist of Star Trek thrown in. I have taken millions of photos. We spent last night downloading them into Chris' computer and he's put a few of them on www.myspace.com/cmlovell.
The night life is amazingly sophisticated and then you just as quickly fall into a class sinkhole with horrific sights of beggars without arms and shit like that. There's obviously big money, big economy in swing here but the size of the population is humbling. Went out the first night but didn't last too long. Hadn't had the energy to go out at night as we had been going from sun up till late at night.
World Cup fever is rampant. Our first sojourn into the nightlife was at an expat bar called Brown's and it looked like Heroes. Everywhere we go there are giant (I'm talking billboard size) TV screens set up with throngs of folks looking on.
Have done more walking than I have ever done. There must be hundreds of univerities here. Visited a few. The food is tremendous with choices that are just astounding. Went yesterday to a Korean barbeque joint and cooked our own meal at a hibachi built into our table. Came back Thursday night exhausted. Then we went to the Summer Palace, rented a boat after walking around the tremendous grounds and just lazed for awhile. Rode another boat home and then a power boat through the channels in Beijing, way cool.
Avoid shopping at the Silk Market. What a nightmare. Tons and tons of knockoffs but through a gauntlet of aggressive Chinese salespeople. Didn't last too long, wasn't worth it. Noone expects to pay the price asked and they think you're a fool if you don't haggle. Makes for a pretty long time to buy an item and it's just too stressful and wasteful a price to pay for worthless crap. This really is the World Cup of barter. I can't stand it. The hostel is situated in a little area just below Tienemen and has plenty of shops so you can avoid that crap at Silk Market completely.
Went out for Peiking Duck that night with a Chinese friend of Chris'and it was really spectacular. This reminds me of my honeymoon trip to Paris, no bad meals. Get the pig ears.
Thursday (could this really be only our second day here?) was quite a day. Got up early and moved our stuff to a hostel as it was way cheaper. Went from a Holiday Inn type hotel to (CLICK HERE): 365 Inn (A hostel that is very close to Tienemen. Highly recommended.). It is in your classic Chinatown. Talk about a "road movie". Very very cool. Walked down the hutongs, ate, bickered with the locals. (film at eleven).
We went to see Chris' friends practice their martial arts and saw the damndest little 9-12 year old girls practicing gymnastics. so cute and accomplished. went to the Tienemen square as well as the Forbidden City and fooled around in a hutong eating dinner and looking at knickknacks.
Went to the high class mall that is on par with anything anywhere. Bought me a fancy designer chinese made shirt. China is a study in contradictions. (Even Mao said that all one can do is hope to minimize the contradictions.) Went from a glamorous mall to a "cd store" in someone's home in the hutong on the way back to the hostel and got a glimpse of working class chinese living arrangements.
Thursday we did very little but walk and gawk. Helped Chris look for an apartment (which he found) and just did a little shopping. Went out that night and ate at The Banana Leaf in the club district (near The Loft) a Thai place that was wonderful. The food has been such a heavenly surprise. It's like France, haven't had a shabby meal yet. Went to a Salsa bar and then to Passion one of the fanciest discos that I have ever seen. (lasers, computerized multi-media, hd tvs at the urinals, etc. saw an electronic billboard in a subway tunnel today, same thing, very high tech stuff I've never seen. went to an internet cafe and it was super modern with about 300 work areas, filled to the max.It seems that everyone in China is internet connected. Even this hostel has DSL.)
Since Passion really wasn't our bag, we ended up at a pickup bar where I was introduced (not in the literal sense) to the concept of Mongolian Whores. Stayed out way too late and ended up walking arm-in-arm with Chris down our little ghetto street at 4:30 next am, made for a late and sluggish start. Stayed in that night.
Today we went to the rental office to finish signing the contract and just spent the day doing that kind of crap. Big news, Beijing has a Wal-Mart so we stopped in there. Funny what you miss.
