Monday, November 5, 2007

First thoughts in Beijing

The flight here from the states went surprisingly quickly - I sat down and promptly passed out for about 7 hours when I woke up we were just past the north pole. The quickest way between Chicago and Beijing is across canada, Russia, and Mongolia before reaching China. For the remainder of the flight I watched bad movies, drank wine, looked out the window and caught the occasional cat nap. Siberia looked exactly as you might expect it to but the scale was stunning - thousands and thousands of miles of snowy, uninhabited land. Mongolia was very similar except about a couple hundred miles after we crossed the northern border the snow had melted (or not fallen yet) and all you could see was dirt with no plants or signs of life for thousands more miles.

We couldn't really see anything once we crossed the border into china because of clouds - we couldn't even see much on the final descent into beijing. My friend Gabe and his girlfriend Ali assure me though that the lack of visibility has nothing to do with precipitation or weather and I believe them - the pollution is thick in the air and has a definite taste. Don't expect athletes to be breaking records in the 2008 olympics!

Another friend, Danny, showed up at Gabe and Ali's apartment just moments after Ellie and I arrived. We headed out to a restaurant for a delicious and much welcome dinner - I missed the last meal on the flight and was starving! When we got back, jetlag had the best of me and I was fast asleep on the couch in minutes.

Ellie and I are very fortunate to be staying with friends while in Beijing - its certainly a nice way to ease into this trip. Its funny though, we're surrounded by american friends and are staying in a very nice apt - in many ways its not different from home. I'm sure there will be a major culture shock when finally venture out today for the first time without friendly translators at our side! We will be heading out to the summer palace, Tianamen Sq and temple of heaven. Today will also be the first experiment in the subway - Ali has been great with sightseeing suggestions and directions so I feel well prepared. We're quite obviously not the first out of town guests they've had!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

So glad you made it all that way without any mishaps. Sounds like a nice way to ease into the adventure.

We're all looking forward to future postings. Living vicariously...Have a great time!

Ran Barton said...

Bon voyage, Matt!

mr samson said...

Go to wodaku (check the spelling). It's kind of like a little Korea, but there are a lot of hilarious bars there. Also, go see a tea show. Kind of touristy but whatever, it's entertaining.