Beijing Dao le!!

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  Beijing, China
Wednesday, July 9, 2008

A little over three years since I left here, I'm back in Beijing!  We arrived around 9:00 pm  local time to a brand new - and I mean BRAND NEW looking - terminal.  The airport was almost nothing like I remembered.  The new terminal had some gorgeous architecture and a tram to go to the main terminal.  That one looked pretty much the same, except much more orderly than I remember.  There weren't any slightly sketchy guys running around yelling "taxi, taxi."  Seems they got rid of the gyspy cabs and had a very orderly taxi line.  In fact, we had to leave the first taxi we sat in.  Police grabbed the driver for some kind of licence violation and ushered us to the next one in line. 

Jen's Chinese (huge southern Chinese accent with American inflection) and mine (American with gargling Beijing accents) both got a test on the cab to the hotel.  The hotel is in a hutong (a neighborhood of small confusing lanes, what Beijing used to be covered with before they tore down their city and built a new one) and it was impossible to tell him the address.  We managed to get him to the neighborhood (near the train station, easy enough to find) and he asked another cabbie for directions.

The hotel itself is nice. Not at all luxury but with AC, nice showers, and free public internet I've got nothing to complain about.  This morning Jen and I ventured out for the breakfast we'd been dying for (egg and tomato stir fry and jiaozi) then wandered around a bit, bought a cell phone, and started calling our respective friends so we can see all our Beijing friends.  We'll probably stay here a day or two longer than planned just to be able to see everyone.  The location is good, in the center of everything, but I kind of wish I were in the neighborhood I used to live in so I knew my way around and where the good restaurants are (or were, so much has changed there's no guarantee anything is still there). 

It feels great to be back here; I can't wait to see my old friends. 

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