Blogs from Beijing, China, Asia - page 496

Tiantan... read more

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Now that we have left civilised America, I should be able to find internet access more easily - crazy! We are now in Beijing after a tedious long-haul flight from San Francisco, setting off at mid-day on Saturday and arriving in Beijing on Sunday at 8.30pm due to the fact that we crossed the international date line. Not the best for jet lag! I had been expecting China to be really dirty and nasty and full of unfriendly rude people and dodgy food (after speaking to other travellers who have been there). On the contrary, however, I have found it to be remarkably clean and nice, and the people are friendly and are very patient with our complete lack of knowledge of the Chinese language. Mind you, we are in Beijing, so I imagine things might ... read more

I've unfortunately had to come back to this blog retrospectively, so I will do the best to recant what we did. This is also before the time of my digital camera and so photos have to be scanned, I will do my best to make this happen. As the title vaguely alludes, this blog will focus on Jennifer's visit in December of 2000 and January of 2001 to China when I was living in Beijing since September 2000, studying Mandarin at UIBE in Chaoyang District (among other things). This is the only time I was in Beijing that was not covered by the hundreds of pages I wrote in my paper journals during the six months that I was there, so I'd like to do my best to tell the story of a time that might ... read more

It was April 1999 that I found myself alone at the ripe age of 20 years old on a plane bound for the orient . Beijing to be precise. What had I gotten myself into? Here I was, flying high above the vast Siberian wasteland headed toward the most populous country on Earth, not to mention the fact that it was also the largest communist nation and second only to my home country of the United States in terms of power and influence. Did I mention that I did not speak a word of Chinese apart from the ubiquitous Ni Hao, the Chinese hello. I am not even that fond of Chinese food so why was I going there? I think it all started with an article that I read in National Geographic’s Traveler magazine sometime ... read more