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Published: March 16th 2006
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My flight to Beijing was uneventful and the plane was only 1/4 full at most, which was fabulous. Getting the Chinese visa and Japanese reentry permit had been hellish experiences that I was trying to put behind me. I had almost forgotten about all those hours sitting in immigration with hundreds of other people until I hit immigration in the Beijing airport. The guy behind the counter took an awfully long time examining my passport and I start thinking maybe I forgot something. Maybe the visa wasn't correct? Had I checked it? What was the deal? Then I realized he was looking at my picture. He then began switching back and forth between looking at the picture and then looking at me. This went on for at least a minute, during which time I started thinking maybe I should tell him that my passport picture is without a doubt the worst possible picture of my entire life. I decided against that and instead remained silent. At this point, he mutters something in Chinese and looks at me. I just shake my head and shrug, and he finally says ok, and I am allowed to proceed. Who the heck knows what happened
in those five minutes....
Once I was allowed into the country, I learned within the next half hour just how pushy many Chinese people are when I tried to buy a ticket for the shuttle bus into the city. Finally got on it and then laughed out loud when I really thought about the fact that we were driving on the right side of the road; my first time on the right side in over three months now. I guess the more places I go, the less I even think about what side we are driving on. I was the only westerner on the bus, and getting off near Tian'anmen Square, and words cannot express how people bombarded me when I got off. Guys in my face: "You need hotel? You need taxi?" I was really tired, having gotten no sleep the night before and up before 5 am to get to the airport, so had no patience for that. One group of guys kept following me and I finally had to yell at them to leave me alone and quit following me. I knew a taxi was supposed to cost 25 rmb to the hostel but of course
people are telling me 100. Finally I took a cab for 50, knowing I was getting ripped off but not much caring at that point. 50 rmb is is a little more than $6, and it costs more than $6 just to step into a cab in Tokyo....
The hostel I stayed in was right near the square as well as the Forbidden City, so a really ideal location. It was in and among Beijing's hutongs (narrow streets-picture rickshaws, random little dogs running around, street vendors) so a really fun and interesting area to walk around. Over the next few days I also visited the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, some markets, and of course, The Great Wall. I wanted to see Mao on my last day but the queue was about a mile long so that didn't happen. Beijing seemed SO spread out compared to Tokyo. According to the Lonely Planet, greater Beijing is the size of Belgium. It was nice having some space for the first time in two months! The most remarkable things about Beijing were 1) the cold and how unprepared I was for it, and 2) the prices compared to Tokyo. It was
absolutely freezing for 4 out of my 5 days there and finally got warm on my last day. You can see the pictures below of how the weather drastically changed on my day in the Forbidden City...very cold but sunny when I was going in, soon after freezing and snowing really hard. Needless to say, I beelined it out of there and bought serious cold weather clothing. At that point, nothing mattered but trying to get warm. Trying to find a jacket that fit was also amusing. There is nothing like busting out of an XL to help one's self-esteem... Anyway, there were many times that I thought my classmates might have had the right idea heading to Thailand to sit on the beach. Granted I am going there in May, but maybe I should've gone someplace, *anyplace*, warm!! In terms of the prices, here are some examples: it costs 3000 yen to take the bus from the airport into the city in Tokyo (which is almost $30 US) and in Beijing it was 16 rmb (about $2 US). At the supermarket in Tokyo, my little jar of peanut butter is 450 yen (nearly $4.50 US), whereas in Beijing I
went to the supermarket and got the same exact jar of peanut butter, as well as water, fruit, and yogurt for about $1.60 US. Why am I living in Tokyo again and not China? Oh right, it was the only place I could go and legitimately study and get credit. Ok.
Met lots of nice people from all over: US, UK, Holland, Scandinavia, etc. Surprisingly not as many Australians as there normally are. Ate lots of great meals for about $1.50 US, YAY! Went out some but mostly tried to get to bed at a decent hour every night since I didn't want to waste any time. It it felt hard to cram pack Beijing into under 5 days. Felt really jealous of most of the people there; as usual, who are traveling for six months/1 yr./etc. and have amazing itineraries ie just came off the Trans Siberian, headed for Tibet, and the like. I missed a bunch of things but hopefully next time. There is tons of construction going on and lots of renovation of the major tourist sites, which was kind of a site for sore eyes when you're wanting to get some nice pictures. But it
seems they are full-on with getting everything ready for the Olympics.
My time there went by fast and then it was onto Xi'an, 12 hours southwest, by overnight train...My train ticket, amazingly, had been delivered to the hostel without a hitch.
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Iris
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very cool
We are studying China right now in my Comparative Politics course. Very interesting to see your photos and read your journal after the lecture I had today.