BEIJING IN THE MIST

Well, arriving in Beijing from Tokyo was a bit of a culture-shock to be honest. It looks so different (what you can see of it through the smog), the people are generally less friendly (not to mention the blatant & relentless staring, spitting in the street and complete disregard for personal space) and of course we couldn't understand a word of what anyone was saying.

But we were there for a week and the more we saw and experienced, the more accustomed we grew. The city felt very different at night - much more appealing without the grey smog-coated concrete everywhere and it felt more alive. It's a huge place (very wide, endless roads and many high-rise buildings) and seems to take forever to get anywhere - metro stations are generally in extremely inconvenient locations?! Some Americans we met at our hostel (Happy House) likened Beijing to American cities such as LA, though with much more chaotic traffic - cars and bikes rule, pedestrians have absolutely no right of way... even on pedestrian crossings!

All those niggles aside, we found some beautiful parks to escape the city in (along with many locals), the night food market opened our eyes if not our mouths, and The Forbidden City was impressive in its scale, architecture and sheer volume of (mainly Chinese) tourists.

Of course we haven't yet mentioned the Olympics, but that's because we couldn't get tickets. We tried to get some, but were told they'd sold out and buying from touts in China is apparently a bit dodgy. The streets are teeming with soldiers, policemen & countless other security outfits, randomly searching people. However, we were able to enjoy some of the sport on the numerous big screens across the city and in every restaurant, cafe & bar... is it just us being here or are the Chinese winning everything?!

It's fair to say that Beijing hasn't been our favourite city experience so far, but its been an interesting beginning to our China trip. We're now in Xi'an and things are looking up...