Chinese lessons in Beijing

I decided to come directly to Beijing instead of immediately starting to travel. Though I have the finger-pointing down to a science, it doesn't help much to get where you want to go, when you have to go, if you know what I mean. So I started Chinese classes. Ouch. It's really hard, and not a particularly pretty sounding language. My tongue actually gets sore pulling it back so hard for some of the sounds. And then there are the characters which have absolutely no relationship whatsoever to the sounds you make--unlike Korean, which after ten days I could read (of course, I had no idea what I was saying...but I could read it). The tones are not hard.......in theory. However, remembering which of the 5 tones (4 distinct and one neutral--which changes depending on the preceeding tone) to use when you are talking is another matter. I still call my "mother" my "horse", much to the amusement of my teachers.

Beijing...........a city the size of Belgium with twice the people of New York City........and air that gives you an immediate headache when you exit the little bit of air-conditioning that there is. Yesterday the air was so bad at 10 AM that I could not make out the details on the building across the street. Fortunately, it rained later for several hours, and today it is like a new place. I could actually see the hills to the northwest for the first time. I seriously don't know how the Olympic competitors will handle this. And speaking of the Olympics............the city is Olympic crazy. Nearly every block has as "Official" Beijing Olympic Store. Things fly off the shelves. And some of the souvenirs are really expensive. It is constantly on the TV (I treated myself to a good air-conditioned hotel for a couple of days during the worst of the polluted days).

Lots of cultural things to do here--the dynastic emperors built great places...... but my favorite so far has been biking through the hutongs--the old narrow residential alleyways of the city. A lot have been torn down recently for Olympic venues--sort of like the West Side tenements in New York were torn down for Lincoln Center. Biking through on a Sunday is being able to see how most of the residents actually live. Tiny stores, sidewalk markets, old Buddhist temples, windows where you can get great street food, people playing Mah Jong or cards, electric lines running every possible direction--some of the hutongs still don't have plumbing, so there are still communal water faucets and clean communal toilets. It's hard to fathom that this all goes on when two blocks away on the major streets, people are plunking down cash at a Prada or Hugo Boss store that would be right at home in Milan.

Once again, photos are coming, but I had to get this all down before going to Mongolia, or I'd forget.

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