Beijing

Tian'anmen Square
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Just when you think a flight from the U.S. to Europe is long --- then you embark on a flight to Beijing and realize Europe is nothing.  We arrived safely after no real interruptions in our flight plans. Unfortunately the flight was fully booked, but after our 12.5 hour flight to Tokyo, we boarded our final flight to Beijing and realized that we had been upgraded. What a delight that was.

We had read about the air pollution in Beijing and noticed it immediately as we left the airport. You could literally smell the coal in the air. The next morning, we were a little concerned when we didn't see the sun until about 10am through the haze. We weren't sure how much of that was due to the smog versus just fog. After being there for a few days however, we definitely can see the smog with the 15+ million population.

A tour thru the hutongs
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The first two days were on our own before joining up with our tour group. The first morning, we headed over to Tian'anman Square to get a lay of the land. Along the way, we happened upon two gents from Shanghai and made conversation along the way. As it turned out, we spent the majority of the afternoon with them making our way around the massive square and then to the hutongs (small residential alleyways). Very interesting to see life in these little streets – and funny to see the delivery man on his bicycle delivering bricks of coal to the people living there.

The Great Wall with the fall colors
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The next evening we met up with our tour group for orientation and a group meal. We had been scoping out all the other hotel guests for the first two days wondering if they were on our tour. Fortunately, we got a fun group that is from various parts of the world – Germans, Brits, Swedes, Aussies.    It just so happens that our group is comprised of 10 women and only two men. Lucky guys!

One of the highlights of our stay in Beijing was our visit to the Great Wall. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating so we didn't go to the part of the wall that was originally intended and hit a shorter section of it.  What was surprising and disappointing, as it detracted from the beauty, was how commercialized the section of the wall was. There were many shops all selling the same stuff and also a cable car so you didn't have to walk the 1000 steep steps to get on the wall. We chose to walk the steps but we did take the luge down which was quite fun. Another highlight was our guided walk with our local guide Vivian through Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City where the Emperors lived.

Beijing at night - it's a bit like Times Square
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You would not believe the size of all the sights. The Square, the Summer Palace, even the beers are grand(but warm!).   So much history and so interesting to hear the perspectives of the people within China as to the historical events.

Our tour group supports a local charity that teaches mildly mentally disabled individuals, so one of our afternoons included lunch at the school followed by a play by the students, a calligraphy lesson (very fun!) and Chinese games in the courtyard. It turned out to be a most wonderful and memorable day.

Interesting eats at the night market
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We can't forget to mention the food -- We found the Kung Pao to be a little less spicy even than what we have at home. We loved the sichuan beef as expected. The Peking Duck is a specialty which we really enjoyed and the hot pot is another but is essentially a pot with bits of many things tossed in – for instance, a whole chicken (including the head and feet) – have to watch what you put in your mouth. We've found that we've gotten pretty skilled with the chopsticks at this point (good thing!) Our other favorite was our little local take away place where each morning we got what’s called a pancake but is really like a biscuit with a fried egg inside. Quite yummy – and all for less than 30 cents. All in we seem to be spending only $15 a day on food for both of us (including beers). It's crazy.

Scotty was brave and tried the fried scorpions
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A few things we found to be surprising. For a socialist society, you can certainly see more levels of social classes that we expected. One was that we didn't expect to see the many number of fashion malls and high end retailers – who thought we'd see a Tiffany and Burberry store along with many others.  We were also surprised that most of the people now have taken on cars versus the traditional bikes. The government is apparently incenting people to use the buses and underground trains more. We ventured onto the public transport and found that they are jammed packed most all day long with travelers leaving us wondering – how many Chinese can you fit onto a bus?? We were told that there are over 3 million cars in Beijing and 1,000 new ones added to the road each day.  The traffic is astonishing.

Playing a Chinese version of hacky sack in the park
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Next onto Xi'an and the Terra Cotta Warriors.

We'll try and update the blog weekly for those at home as access isn't quite as efficient here in China!

Zai Jian (Good Bye)

Tidbit of the day: The Forbidden City has 9,999 rooms and the emperors had around 3,000 concubines