Impressions of Beijing

Beijing is not my favorite place. I would rate it a 2 out of 14 on the pH scale. Tons and tons of traffic. Dirty, hot, overcrowded, extremely polluted, very little culture or feel to it (which is odd, since historically the city has been so important to China). But there is so much destruction and reconstruction going on now that the city doesn’t feel like much of anything.

Some highlights were a very fat man riding me around on the back of his bicycle through a bunch of hutongs (small traditional, alleys). Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Temple of Heaven were all OK. Some of the less touristy parks and padogas were cooler. But all in all, nothing awesome to report (except the Great Wall).

The pollution in Beijing is unbelievably terrible. It is permanently gray outside. You climb to the top of something to see a view and you can barely see the buildings a few hundred yards away. The sun shines a creepy orange color. I was coughing and sneezing the entire time I was there. I also had my first asthma attack since I was like 12 years old and had to sit down on a bench and try to catch my breath after walking around outside for only about 6 hours. They say that spending a day in Beijing is the equivalent of smoking 70 cigarettes. I am not sure what they will do when the Olympics are here. Somebody said that they may ban people from driving during that time, though that seems crazy (but maybe not so crazy for China).

Also, taxi drivers are ridiculously bad. First, I started off by taking the name of the place that I was going written in Chinese. Taxi drivers either would not or could not take me where I wanted to go - even to major attractions. Then I started bringing both a Chinese map and the Chinese name of where I wanted to go. Still, we would circle around, ask questions, and take forever to get where I was going. And I was not much better on my own. My hotel the last night was in a little dilapidated alley (too small for cars, people sold melons out of carts pulled by donkeys and fried up fresh dumplings outside my hotel, which was kind of cool). Since it was a small street though, nobody knew the name of it and I could almost never find it. I got dropped off by taxis twice very close to it, walked the wrong way, and ended up spending over an hour both times trying to find my hotel again. Very frustrating, especially in summer heat. I was definitely the sweaty American in Beijing.

On a good note though, since there has been so much deforestation to the west of Beijing, in the spring there are these massive sandstorms that come from the new deserts and blow sand all over the city. I am pleased to report that while it was in the high 90s when I was there, the skies were sand-free.

Will try to post some pictures when I can.