A Few General Observations about Beijing

I've been through this spiel with enough people now that I can just rattle off my overall impression about being in Beijing.

(Picture = Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, at the Temple of Heaven Park.)

Beijing is a genuinely interesting place, a huge city that's visibly exploding with growth right now. You get the sense that the city's at a historically pivotal time. The first things you experience are the traffic and the pollution, which are as off the charts as their reputation suggests. Anywhere you go in Beijing you'd see highrise buildings going up, cranes, metal or occasionally bamboo scaffolding, constant ground-level construction noise, workers everywhere, dust in the air. Obviously I didn't (and don't) know the city well, so much of my impression of Beijing (or at least central Beijing, which is still big) involves this apparently undifferentiated urban area that's thoroughly caught up in this expansion.

Near the center of the city (near Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City) you can wander around and see these big, crowded six-lane city streets intersecting with the smaller traditional city roads, hutongs (the word refers also to the courtyard-style buildings built along them), winding modestly through the center of city blocks with homes and small restaurants and hole-in-the-wall shops. You also see swaths of hutongs that have been torn down to make way for modern city blocks.

It's crowded but less intimidating than I thought it would be. (I realized when I got there that I'd been imagining something like Canal Street in NYC, only huge.) Being a pedestrian is, on one hand, a lot of fun since it's such an active activity (dodging bikes & traffic at every street corner); and on the other hand, completely exhausting because there's a lot of distance between everything. I really beat the hell out of my shoes and feet. The second week I learned to take it a bit slower. Ideally you'd rent a bike and join the huge number of Beijing cyclists, but I figured I'd have to stop constantly to figure out where I was, and generally not be able to devote my full attention to not getting myself killed.

There's enough ambient English to fake your way through a tourist agenda. Restaurants on the beaten path generally have English-language menus or picture menus, and you can get through things like ticket counters in OK shape. There are public toilets, and it's easy to buy bottled water out of magazine stands or shops. There are taxis everywhere, and if you have a card from your hotel with a basic map & the address on it you'll be set. (I wouldn't want to fake my way through Beijing entirely; I was still spending evenings with Mike, who can obviously get around well.) People speak a little less English than I was expecting, at least having read about the city's efforts to get, say, taxi drivers to learn phrases before the Olympics (not a chance). In general, though, the city's Europeanized enough that it doesn't feel wildly foreign.

The subway system is easy to use, although at peak hours it's pretty busy (think, NYC people, of the 6 train at rush hour). They announce stops in English. Buses were harder to figure out (both routes and routines) and more of a challenge.

I was profoundly unable to speak Chinese. Basically I could say "hello" and "thank you" (these are always in context) but anything beyond that I couldn't pronounce at all correctly, even two- or three-syllable phrases. I did a lot of pointing and holding up fingers. Things like vocal inflection, tone of voice, and facial expression are different, too; it's strange being in crowds where you're completely isolated from communication. I spent a lot of the first week feeling strangely sexless or inert, kind of like a pinball whocking through a machine that's been tilted. I did get used to this a bit, but it takes some energy out of you.

Weather-wise, it was in the 70s and hazy the whole first week. It rained while Mike and I were in Shanghai, and then it was cooler and windier when we got back. That cleared up the sky a good bit; apparently it was about 10 out of 10 for Beijing weather. Mike noted that this is what they call Level 2 pollution, which is essentially worse than anywhere in the United States. The construction puts a lot of dust into the air, so it's gritty.

Highlights of my sightseeing, briefly noted -- by which I mean things you should definitely make time for if you go (I will write about these more later) -- were the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven Park, the acrobatics show at the Chaoyang Theater, the day trip out to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, and a Peking duck dinner at Beijing DaDong Roast Duck Restaurant. I'd make time for the Lama Temple, since it's an active (Buddhist) temple and if you're worn out from looking at architectural detail you can watch Chinese tourists lighting incense instead, or listen to monks reciting scriptures in plainchant for a while. If you're intrigued by musical theater most people find ear-splitting, put the Beijing Opera Company at the Chang'An Theater on that list too. Massages are cheap and will relax your poor brutalized feet until you have to walk anywhere again. The Capital Museum is worth going to, as well as the cluster of galleries called 798 Art District if you're interested in contemporary art. I think you should see Mao; I mean, where else are you going to see Mao.