So far so good
Though I have never been on the receiving end of a golden shower, I imagine it to be not unlike my first shower at the hostel. I'm hoping that the pressure will improve on my next attempt since it was undoubtedly affected by the heated battle between me and the guy in the stall next door for hot water. I hope you like that Ben, and for the rest of you I'm sorry.
So I've got two full days of wandering Beijing under my belt so far and have had some time to form impressions. First let me say that Beijing is really, really gigantically enormous and there is a shitload of traffic everywhere. I tried to explain "shitload" to a Chinese person the other day by the way but I'm not sure how successful I was. I know how to say "extremely big" but it just didn't feel like it had the same impact and I of course want to choose the word that is most appropriate to my meaning. So it takes a long time to get anywhere in this town because there is also lots and lots of traffic. The roads are enormous and there are constantly 12 lane roads running into other 10 lane roads forming gigantic intersections which are at least slightly terrifying, though the indifference with which locals wander into traffic is awe-inspiring. Furthermore, there are comparable number of bicycles on the street to the number of cars, which are also incredibly brazen in their choice of route. I saw a 700 year old man riding 3 inches in front of a bus at a very leisurely pace and not the least bit fazed by the honking or the shouting of the driver. This or something like it happens every 17 seconds or so. The sidewalks are equally chaotic. It turns out that about 16 million people live in this city, which I learned last night is more than Sweden and Israel. I'm going to have to trust those figures since Wikipedia is blocked by the Chinese government who apparently don't want their populace to have access to these fascinating statistics it would seem.
Another overwhelmingly obvious feature of the city at this time is that it is almost entirely under construction as the efforts to prepare for the Olympics next year continue. There are cranes everywhere and various parts of various sights and attractions are covered in scaffolding. This definitely put a damper on my visit to the Forbidden City, which for those who don't know is the former dwelling of the emperor and now a giant museum. They've actually changed the name on recent maps to the Palace Museum, which in my opinion is not nearly as awesome of a name. In fact, it's not awesome at all. So I went there and it's really big and there's crazy open courtyards and gigantic beautiful structures in ancient Chinese architectural styles. There's also rooms upon rooms of priceless treasures. All of that would seem to be interesting enough, but 3/5ths or so of the place is closed for renovation, and a bunch of the more significant structures are entirely covered in scaffolding. Furtheremore, there are droves of people almost everywhere, predominantly Chinese tourists who were walking through relatively narrow areas with really large umbrellas open to deflect the sun, and paying absolutely no attention to the fact that they were blocking the only path as they pause to take turns taking pictures of each other in front of each Qing dynasty urn. I lasted a few hours and then I bailed, plotting to return someday when construction is complete and when I can bribe some janitor to let me in after closing so I can have the place to myself, like the emperor without the harem. Or with depending on how much more of a bribe that requires.
The first day was saved with a visit to Beihai Park just north of the Forbidden City which relaxed me substantially. It was enjoyable to go back to having more than one foot of personal space around me. I think that's a cultural thing with which the Chinese are more comfortable living in a country with 1.4 billion people or so. Or maybe I'm just a wuss. Anyway, the park was wonderful, then I met a friend at a vegetarian restaurant for lunch near a Confucian Temple. We then wandered through some of the traditional neighborhoods of Beijing complete with preserved old-style architecture. Those are called Hutongs and to say that it was welcome change to the 12 lane highways is a dramatic understatement. Without going into more extraneous detail, my second day was spent at the Emperor's former summer pad, the Summer Palace. This is a wonderful and large park with a mixture of greenery, hills, quiet areas, and large ancient structures which are pleasantly unrestored but generally in quite good condition. This was possibly my favorite sight in Beijing thus far. I then took yet another public bus, my preferred mode of travel despite the traffic (only 1 yuan, about $.13usd) over to the nearby Beijing Botanical Gardens which also had a number of nice spots and which was amazingly empty save handfuls of locals at varying intervals.
In the evenings I've generally been pretty exhausted though last night I managed to stay up past 11 and now I'm at least sleeping through the nights though still waking up early which is fine. I've met zillions of people here, the hostel is possibly one of the favorites in which I've ever stayed for the general ambience, the friendly staff, and the good location in one of the aforementioned traditional neighborhoods. I'd definitely stay here again next time I come to Beijing. Last night I had dinner with my friend from Beijing and her husband and other friends at another vegetarian restaurant which she was nice enough to locate. Both of the restaurants in which I've eaten so far have been really great actually. I should probably appreciate that more since it'll be harder to locate on my next few destinations.
Finally, today is the day I'm going to the Great Wall. I'm pretty excited about that I must say. I'm going to do a 12km hike on the wall itself which I will write about tomorrow if the Mongolians don't get me.
So I've got two full days of wandering Beijing under my belt so far and have had some time to form impressions. First let me say that Beijing is really, really gigantically enormous and there is a shitload of traffic everywhere. I tried to explain "shitload" to a Chinese person the other day by the way but I'm not sure how successful I was. I know how to say "extremely big" but it just didn't feel like it had the same impact and I of course want to choose the word that is most appropriate to my meaning. So it takes a long time to get anywhere in this town because there is also lots and lots of traffic. The roads are enormous and there are constantly 12 lane roads running into other 10 lane roads forming gigantic intersections which are at least slightly terrifying, though the indifference with which locals wander into traffic is awe-inspiring. Furthermore, there are comparable number of bicycles on the street to the number of cars, which are also incredibly brazen in their choice of route. I saw a 700 year old man riding 3 inches in front of a bus at a very leisurely pace and not the least bit fazed by the honking or the shouting of the driver. This or something like it happens every 17 seconds or so. The sidewalks are equally chaotic. It turns out that about 16 million people live in this city, which I learned last night is more than Sweden and Israel. I'm going to have to trust those figures since Wikipedia is blocked by the Chinese government who apparently don't want their populace to have access to these fascinating statistics it would seem.
Another overwhelmingly obvious feature of the city at this time is that it is almost entirely under construction as the efforts to prepare for the Olympics next year continue. There are cranes everywhere and various parts of various sights and attractions are covered in scaffolding. This definitely put a damper on my visit to the Forbidden City, which for those who don't know is the former dwelling of the emperor and now a giant museum. They've actually changed the name on recent maps to the Palace Museum, which in my opinion is not nearly as awesome of a name. In fact, it's not awesome at all. So I went there and it's really big and there's crazy open courtyards and gigantic beautiful structures in ancient Chinese architectural styles. There's also rooms upon rooms of priceless treasures. All of that would seem to be interesting enough, but 3/5ths or so of the place is closed for renovation, and a bunch of the more significant structures are entirely covered in scaffolding. Furtheremore, there are droves of people almost everywhere, predominantly Chinese tourists who were walking through relatively narrow areas with really large umbrellas open to deflect the sun, and paying absolutely no attention to the fact that they were blocking the only path as they pause to take turns taking pictures of each other in front of each Qing dynasty urn. I lasted a few hours and then I bailed, plotting to return someday when construction is complete and when I can bribe some janitor to let me in after closing so I can have the place to myself, like the emperor without the harem. Or with depending on how much more of a bribe that requires.
The first day was saved with a visit to Beihai Park just north of the Forbidden City which relaxed me substantially. It was enjoyable to go back to having more than one foot of personal space around me. I think that's a cultural thing with which the Chinese are more comfortable living in a country with 1.4 billion people or so. Or maybe I'm just a wuss. Anyway, the park was wonderful, then I met a friend at a vegetarian restaurant for lunch near a Confucian Temple. We then wandered through some of the traditional neighborhoods of Beijing complete with preserved old-style architecture. Those are called Hutongs and to say that it was welcome change to the 12 lane highways is a dramatic understatement. Without going into more extraneous detail, my second day was spent at the Emperor's former summer pad, the Summer Palace. This is a wonderful and large park with a mixture of greenery, hills, quiet areas, and large ancient structures which are pleasantly unrestored but generally in quite good condition. This was possibly my favorite sight in Beijing thus far. I then took yet another public bus, my preferred mode of travel despite the traffic (only 1 yuan, about $.13usd) over to the nearby Beijing Botanical Gardens which also had a number of nice spots and which was amazingly empty save handfuls of locals at varying intervals.
In the evenings I've generally been pretty exhausted though last night I managed to stay up past 11 and now I'm at least sleeping through the nights though still waking up early which is fine. I've met zillions of people here, the hostel is possibly one of the favorites in which I've ever stayed for the general ambience, the friendly staff, and the good location in one of the aforementioned traditional neighborhoods. I'd definitely stay here again next time I come to Beijing. Last night I had dinner with my friend from Beijing and her husband and other friends at another vegetarian restaurant which she was nice enough to locate. Both of the restaurants in which I've eaten so far have been really great actually. I should probably appreciate that more since it'll be harder to locate on my next few destinations.
Finally, today is the day I'm going to the Great Wall. I'm pretty excited about that I must say. I'm going to do a 12km hike on the wall itself which I will write about tomorrow if the Mongolians don't get me.
posted by Dan at 3:39 PM
1 Comments:
thanks for the shout out, I laugh.
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