First day in Beijing

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I set out fairly early to try and find a mobile phone and Chinese SIM card, which I did, and, despite haggling, am sure I bought at extortionate price. I took the opportunity, in so-doing, to explore the area around the hostel a bit.

The hostel is situated in the Dongcheng district, which is a maze of passages and alleys about 20 minutes walk north of the Forbidden City. The alleyways - or hutongs as they are called here - are small and winding, filled with shops (or are they private homes?), street vendors and building works. Once you get off the main axes, you rarely see a foreigner.

Having wandered round the hutongs for a bit, I set off to walk past the Forbidden City to Tian'amen Sqaure (so called, I have only just learned, because it is the public square in front of the Tian'amen palace). I found the square itself a bit of an anti-climax: in my head it was a huge area, surrounded by bars and cafes and hemmed in by buildings. Well, it's huge at least, so I got that part right. But it's strangely exposed, sitting in the middle of 4 main roads and there are in fact few bars and cafes around the square itself, although plenty within easy walking distance. It's also a large attraction for Chinese tourists, so is without fail milling with people.

I had lunch looking out from my dirty cafe onto the square and then moved on to Beijing Rail Station to find a decent tourist map. I just want to say two things at this juncture: firstly, the Beijing public transport system is wondrous - not only cheap but it actually works and, even for someone who can't read kanji, is easy to navigate - and secondly, all tourist maps of Beijing are marked with the MacDonald's sign - apparently it's the only landmark we stupid Westerners can understand and identify. Sad.

Beijing Main Station is a hive of pure, unadutlerated confusion. The queues to buy tickets are enormous and, after making a mental note to get my hostel to book train tickets for me, I moved on.

At this point, the already schitzophrenic weather decided to flash-flood, so I took refuge in the first small eatery I found. The owners and customers all looked a little gobsmacked at having a foreigner come in but were extremely hospitable and gave me hot water (a Beijing staple since the tap water is otherwise undrinkable) to drink. They also commented on my height - which I was expecting - and, with some incredulity and fascination, on the fact that I was left-handed. I hadn't realised that left-handed-ness is forced out of children at school here, so you never see a left-handed adult (I have since checked that it is not unlucky or anything and fortunately it just seems to be a curiosity to them).

I moved on once the rain stopped, back to Tian'amen Square, where I wandered around a bit and met a nice couple who spoke very good English, and essentially chatted me up. We went to a tea room and were ripped off, so I strongly suspect I was had, but the conversation was good - they were the ones I asked about the left-handed thing, and they gave me a lot of useful information about the Forbidden City and about Chinese stories - particularly the legend of the White Snake, which is heralded as the Chinese Romeo and Juliet.

Back in the hostel, I met my dormmates and we went out: for Korean food. Oh well, there's plenty of time to have all the Chinese food I can eat.

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