Beijing

Beijing was impressive--clean, modern, and LARGE. I thought it would feel different and exotic, but it reminded me of home because of the 10-lane highways, cleanliness, and omnipresent sense of organization relative to India. In fact, Beijing appears to be 50-60 years ahead of Indian cities, and it's hard not to wonder if they'll ever catch up.

The buildings are ENORMOUS--Las Vegas hotels are small in comparison. The pollution is bad, though we had blue skies at least one day. Food is fantastic, though laden with far more meat and oil than I eat (either in India or the US). I ate plates and plates and bowls and bowls of food, including TWO meals at one of Beijing's famous duck restaurants, a 12-course wedding banquet, noodles, dumplings, hot pot, snacks, and juices. As an unexpected bonus, I spent the time with a great group of people in town for the wedding--an elaborate and over-the-top event. To top it off, we stayed at the Shangri La hotel where I took shamefully long hot showers, ate perfect apples, and slept as soundly as I have in years.

In case you were unaware...

Not much of old China is left in Beijing, as it's been heavily modernized AND IS PREPARING FOR THE OLYMPICS. REPEAT: THE 2008 SUMMER OLYMPICS ARE IN BEIJING. YOU MAY COMMENCE PURCHASING SOUVENIR COLLECTIBLES. BEIJING = 2008 SUMMER OLYMPICS, AND WE ARE CLEAN, PROSPEROUS AND PREPARED FOR THE 2008 BEIJING SUMMER OLYMPICS. CHAIRMAN MAO AND THE PANDAS WANT YOU TO HAVE A GOOD, CLEAN 2008 SUMMER OLYMPICS.

Beijing has Olympics all over it--tons of souvenir shops, street merchandise, a mammoth stadium, public service announcements, giant signs at The Great Wall of China, and office buildings with 40-ft flashing Olympic mascots dancing across them. Educational videos on each sport play in the very clean Beijing subways next to rows and rows of newly-installed ticket machines and booths. Spitting is out, friendly is in, and let's all give the world a big Beijing welcome...

Power Tourism

We visited every tourist site Beijing has to offer: The Great Wall of China, Tiannaman Square, The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, The Lama Temple, The Temple of Earth, The Temple of Heaven, a government pearl shop, The Ming Tombs, the Beijing Zoo, beautiful parks, touristy art shops and some of the largest malls in Asia. I was freezing most of the time, having only a light jacket and layers of warm-weather shirts. Fortunately, the massive amounts of food warmed me up quickly.

We saw most sites with wedding friends, save for one day with a tour guide. Normally, paid individual tours are a great way to see the city, but unfortunately our tour guide stuck to the approved script. The temples are beautiful, mammoth and IMPOSING. China--old or new--has mastered monolithic architecture. You really need only 4-5 days in Beijing to get all the sites, although it sounds like we should have spent more time in the museums in the Forbidden City. The gardens we saw were lovely, even in winter and must be gorgeous in spring, summer, and autumn.

Our most culturally relevant experience in Beijing was lunch at KFC. The Chinese are crazy for the Colonel. It was good and clean, though certainly no where as good as Chik-Fil-A (unavailable in China, India, or Seattle).

Do Not Ever Visit the Beijing Zoo

Normally, I do not visit zoos outside the US and Canada, but Josh wanted to see some pandas (I saw them in San Diego) and we had a few hours to kill before our flight. I assumed it would be a pretty good zoo, given the global popularity of the panda. The new, modern, clean China broke down at the Beijing Zoo. Once you leave the pandas, the conditions are horrible. Cracked and broken glass, mice tunning through the exhibits, bare cages with bald bulbs, and large animals trapped in 6x12 cement enclosures smelling of urine. The exhibits--even for tropical animals--were poorly heated (Beijing was below freezing nearly the whole time we were there). It's one of the saddest and worst places I have visited, and I hope the Chinese government realizes what an appalling image it's going to give Olympic visitors and fixes the issue. It's definitely a strong reminder that most of China is not at all modern or prosperous, and you wonder who paid the price for all the Olympic polish.