Alex in China

From my last post you might have gotten the impression that I was having a rough time in Beijing. Well, I was. But lucky for me, things have been going uphill since then. I’m recovering very speedily from my cold (thanks to my arsenal of drugs) and my hotel still hasn’t kicked me out even though my real physical passport hasn’t arrived in the mail yet. I think they’re just afraid of dealing with the wrath of Tio again, which is fine by me!

Beijing is much more interesting than I originally gave it credit for. At first glance Beijing has the appearance of an overcrowded city covered in smog (which it is). But in reality it’s a city with an abundance of culture and history…and smog. You really have to get away from the touristy spots to see the real culture but you’ll still get your fair share no matter where you go.

And then there’s the shopping. Prepare to blow your life savings like it’s no one’s business. You’ll be pleasantly deceived by the fact that you can get anything you could possibly want for 1/8 of the American prices. You’ll also think that you’re a master haggler and buy things just because you think you’ve found “the perfect deal”. I know we did, and I loved every minute of it!

We’ve all been waiting for weeks to finally make our way to the mecca of all markets, the pearl market. This place is four levels of non-stop, low price, haggle till you die shopping. I’ve been holding out on buying much before we went to the pearl market and I’m glad I did. We all made a quick stop to the ATM machine to load up on cash before going in. Four hours later we came out with empty wallets and suitcases full of goods.

Of course in all the hub bub about shopping I’ve forgotten to mention our morning at the Temple of Heaven. This place is like the Central Park of Beijing. It’s beautiful, it’s big, and everywhere you go people are enjoying the day. There’s something going on everywhere. There are people dancing in groups, singing old songs, and playing games. Even the elderly Chinese are out having fun, they’re actually probably the most energetic people out there.

To finish off an already eventful day, we went to a Kong Fu show being put on by a very large theater in the city that evening. When I think of Kong Fu I usually imagine ninjas jumping around smashing cinder blocks with their heads and yelling loudly. Needless to say, the show was nothing like that, it was actually extremely artistic with lots of deep meaning.

(But they did smash things on their head at the end, so I wasn’t completely off!)

Overall, Beijing is turning out to be an amazing city. The people are full of energy and fun to watch, it’s different than what I expected.

Well, it’s getting late here and I hear Joel starting to snore so I think I’m gonna go pass out too. Expect a new post in the next few days! -a