First Day in Beijing
Made it to Beijing. All pictures are here (will add as I go)
After a 14 hour flight, 3 hour stop over and another 2 hour flight, we made it to Beijing. Im glad that I’m with a co-worker who was born in China, because otherwise I would be in deep trouble. Not many folks speak English here…although several folks have come up and say hello to practice their greetings. Many just like to wave and smile at me. Of course, I dont mind and always wave and smile back.
Taxis:
The taxi ride was nuts. All taxi rides have been nuts. There are no real rules to the road it appears. None of the cab drivers speak English, so you need to plan ahead and have your destination printed on a card. Im at a pretty nice hotel, so the folks at front will do this for you. I also carry a card with my hotel on it in case Im out in the city and cant get back. Taxis are cheap. $1.2 to get in and 30 cents a Kilometer. Highest fare I had was like 9 bucks for a 20 min ride. The problem is that if a destination is too close, the cab driver might say he doesnt know where to take you. We were trying to get to one of the most famous Beijing Duck spots, but it was too close to make it worth their while. Nobody except the last taxi in line knew about the place we wanted to go.
Pardon the Dust:
I got my first look at the haze in the morning. You can barely see more than a few blocks down the road sometimes.
It doesnt seem or smell smoggy, and I know what thats like coming from Socal. Its mostly just dusty. And there is a LOT of dust in Beijing. I guess part of it is from the deserts. They have perpetual dust storms. Additionally, the whole city is under construction and I would imagine plenty of it is just good ole smog. There are many trees planted around the city as dust barriers. They are supposed to
help clean the air and trap the dust.
Despite the dust and dirt, there is NO TRASH…ANYWHERE! Its totally spotless. No cigarette butts, no wrappers, no nothing. Every street corner has somebody with a broom too. Too bad out-of-towners will spoil it it when they
come here to see the Olympics.
Summer Palace:
Saturday we started off at the Summer Palace.
This place was amazing. I have pictures here. It was crushingly packed because it was a holiday weekend. The number of people here were staggering.
We were there for four or five hours and maybe saw half the grounds. Most of the park is actually a lake. The dirt from the lake was used to make a huge hill for the royalty. On a clear day, the view would be stellar. I probibly walked 10 miles that day.
At the top of the hill is a big Buddah.
The north end of the park has a street called Suzhou Street. It seemed to have a Disneylandish feel to it. Pics are here.
Step on a crack:
One thing I noticed was that there is no sense of liability laws in Beijing. Watch you step! Hills are steep, steps are jagged and there are holes everywhere. Seems like the city is in a mad rush to prepare for the Olympics so there is a lot of work going on. In America, these parks would be facing a lawsuit
a day. Check out this.
Seriously, where are the rails?
Maybe we are just too spoiled.