Advertisement
Published: September 2nd 2006
Edit Blog Post
Smog in the city
So this is what an early morning looks like typically. Smoggy huh? Note the crane. In an effort to make sure the city is pristine for the Olympics, the government have decreed that no new constructions projects may start after 2006. Hence, everybody is doing all the construction they can right now! EVerywhere you look you see signs of construction, with crews working 24x7 It had been a harrowing and difficult time getting out of the UK, and I was glad to be finally leaving the country!! Even more exciting was the fact that I would FINALLY get to see my girl!! It had been far too many weeks of just phone calls, the odd video call, and countless emails!
I was also looking forward to Beijing for lots of other reasons of course 😊 To start with, it was yet another new place that I hadn't been to, and had lots of cool things to see, like the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. Then there was the fact that after 3 weeks of travelling for work, I was finally done and this was going to be pure fun yay!! Finally, I was very much looking forward to seeing my brother Kit, who works for Microsoft in Beijing and had been living there for 8 months.
Nothing much to report on the flight. Courtesy of the new anti-terrorism regulations at Heathrow, I had no laptop, no books, no MP3 player… as expected, I managed to entertain myself (and hopefully those around me) by indulging in witty repartee with my neighbours and hostesses!
I give up
At the top left of this page, there is a little video titled 'crazy traffic' - make sure you watch that! This cop was watching this and has all but given up. It's not like anybody pays any attention to him anyway:) It's actually quite strange when you're flying with other people who ALSO have nothing to read, people are far more likely to engage in conversation. I wonder what it would be like if we all were to catch our public transport without all our little distractions… we'd probably get to know people a lot better!
OK that's enough introspection for this blog. So I flew to Hong Kong on Cathay, landed with 5 minutes to spare, and got 'run' by two hostesses to my next flight. Getting 'run' by staff is quite interesting. You exit your plane, and are immediately met by hostesses who tell you that the next plane is waiting for you, and you need to move quickly to Gate 22. They then proceed to 'run' on either side of you, in the hope that you will hustle along. What's interesting is that they're all wearing their silly tight skirts and heels and actually slow you down!! To make it more interesting, while being run, I was asking them to contact Catherine in Beijing and tell her that I would be arriving an hour earlier than planned, and was writing the instructions down on a piece of
Old guys watching the traffic
And here are some cool guys just sitting down watching the traffic. My bro is posing so that it looks like I'm taking a pic of him ;) paper, all while being run along at the same time. I'm sure we looked quite ridiculous.
Flight from Hong Kong was over before I knew it. Was really excited by now. I impatiently went through immigration, all the while hoping that all those horror stories I'd heard about Chinese immigration were not true. Guess what - Chinese immigration are roughly 212 times as friendly as the Americans.. .😊 Anyway, anticipation arose within me as I got to the gate, and THERE SHE WAS!!
It was a very emotional and exciting experience to finally see each other again. Catherine had taken the effort to dress nice and smell good, while I on the other hand had arrived dressed slovenly, unshaven, and dubious smelling! Even worse I was empty handed (well OK I had a passport and that didn't count!). But it didn't matter, because we were finally seeing each other and all was well in the world.
She was every bit as lovely as I remembered.
Oh, my brother and sister-in-law were also there. Was great to see them too 😊
We were going to spend 7 days in Beijing. When planning our trip, initially we
dave and Kit entertain the crowds
My bro and I both love our Chinese food. One great thing about Beijing is the street vendors!! We had just finished looknig at a temple, when we saw this guy selling 'chuas', which are kinda like a satay. Very yummy and we proceeded to eat about 20 each :). The crowd was amazed and kept watching us pig out. We were happy to please them as long as the food kept coming! though we'd spend 3 days in Beijing, then head south to Datong, Pingyao, Xian, and back again, in time to head out. However, we realised that this would be quite tiring, and potentially risky as it's not easy to book trains in advance in China! We also felt that we'd want to just hang out and have more of a holiday than do serious travel. So our final plan was to just hang in Beijing for 6 days, and spend one day in Datong.
Beijing is a very modern, bustling city, full of honking cars and intertwined cyclists. The first thing you notice is the smog! It's amazing. I thought Mexico City and New York were bad, however, this was the worst I'd ever seen! My bro lived in a very high building, and every morning I'd look out, and it was a good day when I could see more than a kilometre away!! The smog also has the unfortunate effect of making the sky a horrible grey colour, and particularly bad for photography.
Apparently China has 8 of the 10 world's most polluted cities.
You may know that Beijing is going to be the site of
women playing Mahjong
One of the things I love about Beijing's old people is that they seem full of life. Walking around the neighbourhood, it's not uncommon to see women piled around a Mahjong table drinking tea and having a good time. the 2008 Olympics. As a result, the government is taking a lot of actions to make sure that the city will be the world-class site that it will need to be. Apart from the skies, Beijing is amazingly clean. Wizened old women in uniforms scour the streets continuously attacking any rubbish with vim and vigour. Interestingly, I noticed that they often are rummaging through bins to separate the recyclables out. Rather than putting in recycling bins, Beijing government obviously decided it was cheaper to just make their staff separate it!
In an attempt to take on the pollution, lots of businesses are going to be forced to stop in late 2007. Amazing huh? So if you are a business that emits pollutants, guess what, better find something else to do next year!
Even more amazing - a third of all cars are going to be banned from driving during the Olympic period. The government are organising a lottery, and everyone with a car is in it. If you are unlucky enough to be selected, guess what - no driving for 6 months! Of course, government and Olympic-related cars are exempt 😊
I guess there are some times
Busted!!
We were walking along the street when we saw this restaurant with all its staff piled up outside in formation. Not sure what they'd done wrong, but somebody was out the front yelling at them. I was impressed with their composure especially when they did an about face and marched back into the restaurant. Weird. when being a totalitarian regime actually work for you.
Travelling in China is quite challenging, in fact, more challenging than anywhere else we'd been. To start with, English is not commonly spoken. Even harder is that fact that the script is not readable. In other countries such as Tunisia where everyone spoke french, at least we could read the script, and guess at what words meant. Ordering food in China is difficult. You can't read any of the menu. In other countries, we'd end up just pointing and hoping for the best - however in China, you have to be aware that you might end up with something disagreeable like dog or silkworm!
Often major tourist facilities like railway stations have an english speaking official. This was not our experience here. If you had any questions, well, tough. Catching taxis was equally difficult. We'd try to speak Chinese to the driver, but our mangled accent was rarely understood, and we ended up having to use lots of sign language and good luck!!
I guess these are the fun things about travelling. It certainly added a degree of uncertainty when we went out!
Going to sign off
now. Enjoy the pics, lots of stories attached to each… we'll be back with more about our exploits in China!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.053s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0317s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
dolphinchick
non-member comment
Smog
Great blog and pics! I believe you mixed up LA and New York... no smog in New York, plenty of smog in LA. :-)