Blogs from Tian'anmen, Beijing, China, Asia

14 juillet Air China, vol CA880. La porte de l'astronef enfin s'ouvre sur Pékin (Beijing). Il est 17h00 ici, et 5am au Québec. Déboussolé, je m'accroche à la foule et me laisse guider par la vague qui déferle hors du sas. Je sors du tube qui rattache l'avion au Terminal et tente d'accélérer le pas dans la masse. Tous les corridors se rejoignent: l'aéroport tentaculaire de Pékin est certainement l'un des plus vaste au monde. Presqu'une ville. Mon billet d'Air China vers Ulaan Batar (capitale de la Mongolie) m'oblige à passer ici un 15h30 d'escale. Au départ, je pensais devoir passer ma nuit en itinérance à l'aéroport comme je l'ai fait quelques fois auparavant (à Reykjavik ou à Sydney), recroquevillé sur des couchettes improvisées pour essayer de m'éteindre un peu. Mais les grandes compagnies aériennes cachent ... read more

Hi everyone! First off, I would like to report that Tanya (and Sabrina) made it safely to Japan! It sounds like they're in for a fun semester! (Unlike me, studying my butt off at all hours of the day here in Beijing...) Anyways, Friday marked the end of our first two weeks of classes! Us intensive students celebrated by having our first of many biweekly tests... so much fun, you know? The students not in the intensive language program only have the midterms and finals, but as an intensive student, I'm in for a lot of tests. The test was broken into a speaking and a written portion. The speaking portion was relatively easy, because we were allowed to choose a topic from those we have studied so far (four; one for each chapter we've completed) ... read more

Winging our Way Back to Beijing – Tian'anmen Square, Forbidden City and the Beijing Opera We left our super nice hotel in Wuhan in the dark for our early flight to Beijing. Just as the sun was coming up we passed by hundreds of acres of ponds along the highway where farmers were growing lotus flowers. The flowers and the roots are used in cooking. Cope really got into eating lotus roots on this trip. He found them pretty tasty. Once again, we found a new, modern airport with lots of high end shops and restaurants. Through security and on to the long walk to our gate. We got to the airport in good time, so once at the gate we had about an hour or so to read and rest. I headed off with one ... read more

After we returned from Shanhaiguan we planned our next few days. We had train tickets already booked to go to Datong to visit the Hanging Monastery and the Buddhist Grottoes and were flying to Shanghai from there. We were very thankful that we had seen all the major sites on our previous visit when the city was much less busy. Though we were travelling in the off season here there are just so many more local tourists now then in 2005. The economy is booming and the locals are spending money - a lot of money. Food in restaurants is as expensive as in Australia - even small local restaurants are costing a minimum of AUD $20 for a couple of rice based meals. Coffee shops are everywhere and all have wifi and reasonable cappuccino. Not ... read more

Tiananmen Square..................When you are there, you finally realize you are in a Communist country. With red flags and pictures of Chairman Mao everywhere, it is difficult to NOT figure it out. Mao's Mausoleum (where his preserved body remains on permanent display) is on one side of the square and the Heavenly Gate to the Forbidden City is on the other side of the street, proudly bearing a huge picture of Mao. There was a very long line to see Mao's body, so even if one DID want to see a stuffed and mounted Chairman, the long lines would have prohibited it. I figured I could live without it. The square is massive, designed to hold over a million people at one time. Remember, this is the place where the young man faced down a Chinese tank ... read more