Somewhat out of the blue, I got pulled into a 4 day, half-way-round-the-world, carbon-intensive journey to Beijing and back. Departed last Monday night, and returned on Friday morning, meaning I arrived in Beijing on Wednesday morning (no January 3rd, 2012 for me), and left Friday evening, but arrived Friday morning (via my Delorian-cum-Airbus time travel machine!).
Alexis's quick conclusions about Beijing:
1) People in Beijing love to smoke. They smoke outside, inside, everywhere. Ergo everywhere stinks of smoke. Bleh.
2) For "some reason", I kept getting calls every evening around 9pm in Mandarin. While I tried to explain to the woman (yes, it was always a woman) on the other end that I didn't speak Chinese, she kept talking to me. Eventually I gave up on the phone call. I later figured out (via business cards put in my door) and conversations with others that in fact these were "massage" offers. Thrilling. And at a supposed 5-star hotel!
3) The taxi drivers in Beijing are insane. I will admit that I'm a pretty aggressive driver, but these guys (and gals) made me look like a doddering slowpoke. I had one trip through the utterly traffic ridden city doing about 80km/hr with about 6 feet in front of us, 6 feet behind us and cars all around, while changing directions without signalling. It was sort of like doing a high speed parallel parking exercise with no signalling and squealing brakes. It made me ill. And there were not seatbelts. So I eventually looked sideways and accepted that I was in god's hands. Oh - and thank god for cell phones because they have no idea of what's located where in the city (perhaps not surprising when the city keeps growing at the current rate...I suppose I feel for taxi drivers in Calgary).
4) Because of #3, pedestrians are a brave, brave lot in Beijing. Traffic signals for pedestrians are somewhat meaningless because cars rule the city. With a green light for walking, it means "LOOK OUT FOR CARS" just as much as a red light. Beware.
5) Starbucks and KFC have completely taken over the Chinese. And while we in North America seem to really like our Subway restaurants, it would appear that the Colonel's secret recipe has addicted the entire population of China - they're quire ubiquitous. Starbucks, on the other hand, while not quite some well established, has managed to plunk a capitalistic US emblem right smack dab at the base of Tienanmen Square. Coffee tasted the same (a bit burnt) and costed the same (too expensive)...but at least they had free internet!
6) People in Beijing don't seem to understand the concept of thin ice (or are braver than we Canadians are). Or possibly wear drysuits beneath their regular clothing. What about "open water", "holes", "some ice" and "people walking on it" doesn't go together? It was like watching people on the Rideau Canal in early November. Could have been exciting if I'd stuck around. I was also wondering about the holes that were already in the ice...hmm...?
7) The subway system. Gotta give 'em credit - it's pretty great. It was cheap (about $0.30 each way), efficient, easy to understand, follow...and it even had lots of arrows pointing the way to get onto the subway, off of the subway, up the stairs, down the stairs, etc. Lots of guidance for a population that last time guided onto public transit using elbows and fingernails. Nevertheless, it worked smooth as a baby's bottom and is pretty impressive.
8) Harbin - the ice capital of the world. Who knew it was a giant tourism destination for people all over the world!? Not me. I suspect not most people. But they did have a 60 foot high ice sculpture and lots of fireworks.
9) Lastly, I have come to realize that while North Americans (and Europeans) largely seem to watch: Basketball, football (both kinds), tennis, hockey, nascar (?@*#*!?), and the odd other thing (Olympics, Tour de France, etc.), the Chinese pick up every other sport in the world. Regularly televised ping pong, badminton, diving, hammer throw, and you-name-it seems to be on the tube all the time. CCTV is quite the TV station.
So - voila, some memoirs of China for all to enjoy.
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