Beijing Impressions
This was my first time in Beijing, which is a very interesting city, rich with architecture, history, culture, and deep meaning for China going back over 1,000 years. I did not have much time to see the sights and was sick one day, but managed to get to the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and Houhai Lake.
It's a city of many wide boulevards, contrasted to Shanghai's crowded streets and old neighborhoods. Plus the usual capital-oriented large buildings, monuments, and throngs of tourists there to look at everything; it was good to see large numbers of Chinese at all of the exhibits, especially those that traveled a long way to see the their national treasures.
There are some challenges, though, which unfortunately started with mean taxi drivers - it's not clear how they will inject friendliness in time for the 2008 Olympics - the airport taxi coordinator had to practically yell at my driver to get him to take me into the city, and my friend had the same experience. Fortunately, the driver that took me to the airport days later was very nice and talkative within the limits of my poor Mandarin.
The air is something else. Beijing gets blanketing dust storms each spring, with the last ones just weeks before and the taste of dust still in the air. I thought Shanghai had challenged air until I went to Beijing where I couldn't see too many blocks down the street! So much dust and haze, that I cannot imagine how it must be when it's 100 degrees in the summer, or full of coal dust in the winter.
Finally, Beijing traffic is out of hand, even on weekends. Beijing is a far-flung city, like Los Angeles, with several business and embassy districts, plus government areas - even though it has five big ring roads that circle the city - traveling on and between them is fairly slow and painful. By contrast, Shanghai is a larger city, but it's central district where all of the business and most of the foreigners hang out is very compact, roughly a square box a mile on each side (bounded by Nanjing Xi Lu/Suzhou Creek, Xujiahui, Huaihai Lu, and Dongfang Lu in Pudong). It's criss-cross highway network connects pieces of the city together rather quickly.
It's a city of many wide boulevards, contrasted to Shanghai's crowded streets and old neighborhoods. Plus the usual capital-oriented large buildings, monuments, and throngs of tourists there to look at everything; it was good to see large numbers of Chinese at all of the exhibits, especially those that traveled a long way to see the their national treasures.
There are some challenges, though, which unfortunately started with mean taxi drivers - it's not clear how they will inject friendliness in time for the 2008 Olympics - the airport taxi coordinator had to practically yell at my driver to get him to take me into the city, and my friend had the same experience. Fortunately, the driver that took me to the airport days later was very nice and talkative within the limits of my poor Mandarin.
The air is something else. Beijing gets blanketing dust storms each spring, with the last ones just weeks before and the taste of dust still in the air. I thought Shanghai had challenged air until I went to Beijing where I couldn't see too many blocks down the street! So much dust and haze, that I cannot imagine how it must be when it's 100 degrees in the summer, or full of coal dust in the winter.
Finally, Beijing traffic is out of hand, even on weekends. Beijing is a far-flung city, like Los Angeles, with several business and embassy districts, plus government areas - even though it has five big ring roads that circle the city - traveling on and between them is fairly slow and painful. By contrast, Shanghai is a larger city, but it's central district where all of the business and most of the foreigners hang out is very compact, roughly a square box a mile on each side (bounded by Nanjing Xi Lu/Suzhou Creek, Xujiahui, Huaihai Lu, and Dongfang Lu in Pudong). It's criss-cross highway network connects pieces of the city together rather quickly.
posted by Steve at 9:38 PM
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