Beijing.
Trip Start
Jul 30, 2008
1
37
44
Trip End
Ongoing
Loading Map
So at long last we reached the capital of China. Much has been said and written about this city so I will spare most of the boring details outside of what you can see in our pictures. For one, Bejing has an amazing metro line, better than anything we have encountered on our trip. It is also brand new (finished just before the Olympics) so this is probably the reason why. It took us everywhere we needed to go for less than a $1 each time. Better than anything we saw in Europe by far. Bejing was also not as polluted as we might have expected. Better than any other Chinese city so far. Another result of the Olympics is my guess. The Olympics also gave Bejing and overabundance of Olympic crap. From t-shirts, to hats and the stupid mascots of the games which I guess are supposed to resemble pandas. And the Bejing locals are more than eager to hawk these cheap items to you. In fact, I think if any of us hear a "Hello, hello, look inside" one more time, we will throw ourselves off the Great Wall! From what we have experienced so far (and if you have seen this blog, that you know we love to make gross generalizations), the Chinese English skills are severly lacking almost any country we have been in, despite what you may have heard. You ask any question and your response is likely to be "hello." Its like someone told them hello is interchangeable for thank you, please, how are you, ad infidum. I can't get over it. Bejing in late November is also surprisingly cold. And windy. We experienced this the best when we took a day long tour of the Great Wall 3 hours outside of Bejing. It was awesome. One of the best things we have seen so far. We even had a 100 year old guide (ok, maybe she was younger, but she looked old). We also discovered what it was like to have your cheeks frozen off. Good times. Beijing also offered us some of our best food (Peking Duck anyone) as well as a host of interesting characters. Our favorite was our 4th roomate, Camia. Another interesting Frenchman, Camia was in our hostel for over 3 weeks looking for a job after having worked for sometime in Taiwan. Russell asked him what was new one day and Camia flately responded, in a French acent mind you, "Nothing, it's China." What a guy. Well, we also wasted a few days in Beijing getting our Vietnamese visa which proved to be a waste (we are really not good at getting visas). But more on that later in the blog (yes, I am writing from the Future!).
