You know you're in a giant airplane when your seat number is 59 J. fortunately, this was a window, so my transpacific flight was a little bit less hellish than it could have been. That's not to say that it wasn't really hellish anyway. I can't think of anything pleasurable (yeah, i said it, ANYTHING) that I would want to do for 12 hours, and airplane flights are not even remotely pleasurable. We took off around 12:40 with he sun at our backs, and flew in a westerly direction for the next 12 hours. Therefore, we never had a night between Thursday and Friday mornings. We flew NW along the edge of N. America until we crossed the Bering Straight, then we flew through Siberia into China, and finally landed in Beijing at 3:15 the next day. I don't know if we flew this route because of the curvature of the earth, or because it would make our bodies easier to find if the plane crashed, but regardless of rationale, we landed safely, and after 12 hours aboard, I was seriously ready to deplane. Of course, when you're in seat 59 J, you are not going to be among the first to exit the plane. 15-20 agonizing minutes later and I was off. The terminal was just a bizarrely orderly and quiet as Gina had lead me to believe it would be (mainly due to the fact that there was no series of announcements constantly chiming overhead.) Passed through customs and the quarantine check (!) with no issues, and miraculously, was able to meet up with Chris (who had arrived 30 minutes earlier) at baggage claim.
during the cab ride into town, what we could see of the city looked very clean and very modern. Soon enough, we were ensnared in grid-locked traffic, and what should have been 30 minutes turned into over an hour. However we soon made it to the Leo Hostel and within half an hour had unpacked and were exploring the city. The hostel is located in a pedestrian mall, so we were relatively isolated from street noise, and despite the prevalence of western tourists in the hostel, the neighborhood does not seem to be the Beijing equivalent of the "gringo alleys" that you can find all over Latin America. We set out to find some Peking Duck, and the foreignness of this place really started to sink in for me. I have none of the language beyond hello and thank you, and although there are a lot of signs in English here in Beijing, I don't think that will be the case when we head west. Even browsing the internet, the great equalizer, is different here, so I apologize for the spelling errors and lack of links and photos, as I am using vtunnel.com to help me post on blogger, so there are no spell check, link, or insert image functions that I can see.
Anyway, the duck was delicious (fortunately, the menu had pictures), but eating it made me realize that I'm going to have to get A LOT better at using chopsticks before this trip is over, as I don't see a lot of places offering forks! Thanks to the jet lag we went to bed at about 8:40, and were up before 6.
That gave us a chance to spend today exploring Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City, symbols of China's Communist and Imperial governments. Beijing is incredibly hot, muggy, and polluted in July, and after less than 24 hours in the city, I feel like it's already affecting my breathing. Nonetheless, despite the sun, heat, and overall terrible air quality, we soldiered forth into the day. Beijing is covered with these 8 lane mega roads, and every block seems to be cordoned off with small fences. To cross the streets, you need to walk through underpasses that occasionally double as subway stations. We blundered about for a bit, but finally stumbled upon the one that would take us into Tienanmen.
The Square, home of and monument to the government is probably best known (at least by me) as the site of pro-democracy uprisings crushed by the government back in '89. Unsurprisingly enough, we found no marker to commemorate, or even condemn the events. It's like they never happened, and when you have a government in total control of virtually every aspect of society, then I guess you can force selective memory on the masses. Literally thousands of Chinese families were queued up to tour the government center, but Chris and I settled on taking pictures in front of the statue of Mao leading what I assume is some sort of glorious people's collective struggle something or other, before heading off to the forbidden city.
We're all soldiers in the People's Republic...
The Forbidden City was the seat of Imperial power in China, and for some reason it escaped Mao's Cultural Revolution Relatively unscathed, although the front is now adforned with an enormous portrait of the "Great Man" himself. we waited in unbearably hot and sweaty lines in order to first get tickets, then to enter the city. Once inside, we were immediately surrounded by throngs of people.
If you've ever seen "The Last Emperor," "Hero," or "house of Flying Daggers," then you will recognize the Forbidden City as those were either filmed there, or on sets meant to be there. However, you will also recognize it if you've ever been to a Chinatown, or any Chinese restaurant of any caliber or substance. As beautiful and intricate as the Pagodas, calligraphy, and finely carved stone dragons were, I couldn't help but feel that I had seen them all before.
Of course, what I had seen were imitations of a truly magnificent and impressive original, but my first impressions had already been made. Like it or not, I had become one of those people who thought that "Smooth Criminal" was an Alien Ant Farm song. Of course, the heat, jet lag, air pollution, and oppressive throngs of parasol-wielding tourists (seriously, I lost count of how many times I nearly lost an eye) might have also had something to do with formulating my opinions.
We eventually made our way through the the entire city and into Jingshan Park.
We climbed a hill there, and from a Pagoda at its summit we were afforded a wonderful (if hazy) view of the whole Forbidden City complex as well as the rest of Beijing. It was nice to have an idea of the true scale of the city which stretches far beyond what our tiny neighborhood suggests.
Tomorrow we visit the Great Wall, and we head to Tibet bright and early monday morning. I have no idea what the internet situation will be like there, especially beyond Lhasa, but I'll post as I am able.
*- An actual T Shirt we saw in the style of the ubiquitous I Heart NY shirts you see. I guess the Chinese didn't realize English speakers might think of something else when they saw it!
Other cool t shirts we have seen:
I am catwoman (not a cat woman)
Travel to Bicycle
US Marine Crops
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