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landing hard in beijing

no matter how different beijing may be in a million little ways, at it’s heart, it is still a big city – and i find that comforting. i seem to have a strange innate grasp for big cities – i know how to navigate and operate them in a way i can’t quite describe. i feel at ease, no matter how foreign the language, and it is a gift to be able to get my bearings, even when i can’t make out a single word or sign.

beijing is pretty full-on. it’s gritty and pushy and smelly and incredibly noisy, even for someone used to the urban hum. yet things are also kept refreshingly simple. we took the metro from the airport to our hostel, and it makes you appreciate how little there needs to be to complicate the task. we got on a queue, paid 3yuan each, got a small slip of paper, and gave it to the ticket attendant at the entrance. end of transation. no machines to break down, no fare zones to learn, no computerized cards to go haywire. simple.

beijing is not an easy city. god help you if you are less than fuly able-bodied. it’s not a city for the squeamish – if the thought of unrefridgerated meat, copious amounts of spit, and squat toilets where the bullseye has been missed make you squirm, then this is not the city for you.

but it’s an exciting study in contrasts. ancient history lies cheek-by-jowl with cutting edge modernism. traditional crumbling terraced hutongs in narrow alleyways are situated just opposite brand new highrises. dubious hygiene practices and state of the art electronics. sparkling clean streets and thickly polluted air.

today we awoke to a city which has been coated in a fine mist of yellow dust, courtesy of the winds from the gobi desert. masses of bicyclists headed off to work wearing their finest face masks, and a golden haze hung in the air. we decided to spend the day walking about, and headed first to the forbidden city. we entered throught the furthest gate and saw the whole thing in reverse, which turned out to be even more spectacular, as the scale of the city just continued to build in size, until we reached the climactic and impossibly large entrace. it truly is a city unto itself, just going on and on with gate after gate, building after building. a whole building which functioned solely as the dressing room for the emperor for state ocassions. the mind boggles at the scope of the detail and breadth of sheer size and grandeur. from there we passed through tiananmen square – a sober reminder of the political oppression which exists even today, and the pervasive state control of the people’s will. we wandered to the hutong shopping district with its shops featuring everything from tacky memoribilia to shoe insoles, and it’s sensory onslaught of sights, sounds and smells. there is food everywhere you turn, from backstreet kebabs grilled on the pavement, to corn on the cob hawked by a vendor in plastic bags, to ornate restaurants with staff in costume whose sole job is to stand outside and entice the passersby. we then walked to the posh shopping area which rivals oxford street or madison avenue. we bought exotic snacks to sate out curiosity, and familiar dumplings to fill the stomach. we must have walked 15 miles if we walked a step, and by the time we returned to the hostel, our nose and lungs and mouths were full of the choking yellow dust. next investment is a face mask.

tomorrow we’re off to the great wall, so more then.

zaijian for now.

3 Responses to “landing hard in beijing”

  1. vanessa
    April 17th, 2006 12:28
    1

    I’ve been thinking about you all night. Of course now I’m totally confused about what time it is for you in comparison to me. So I think I’ll stick to thinking of myself a day late in catching up with you.

    I’m not sure- did you ever post a Itin? I’m so curious to know where you are going next.

    I can’t wait for photos ( How will you upload them?)

    I get to live vicariously through you and that is great since I can barely leave my goddamn couch.

    And I totally get the city thing. Everytime I’ve traveled to a big city I get all high-like at how at home I feel even though everything is totally diffierent.

  2. Anglofille
    April 18th, 2006 19:34
    2

    This new website is cool! I look forward to reading about your adventures. I’m not sure about those toilets though…

  3. Jen
    April 19th, 2006 10:03
    3

    thanks guys! yes, theoretically ftp’ing my photos shouldn’t be too hard, but i’m on the slowest connection on earth, so it might have to wait…

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