Cabs, buses, and cyclists...oh my
It's been only 3 days, and, surprisingly, I already feel much more comfortable being in big old China. Oh course, it was really weird when I first arrived - I had no idea how to even say anything to the costums agent who greeted me at the airport, and everything seemed...well...foreign. Oh course, the language barrier was nothing compared to the road barriers. The first day involved a lot of "frogger" style road crossings, only, as Rory put it, "it's kind of funny...except that it's your life." By now though, I feel like I've somewhat gotten in the rythm. Just stand next to someone from Beijing and do exactly what they do, shadowing them the entire way across the street. Rules of the road seem not the apply here. I have honestly never seen more taxis, buses, trucks, cars, pedestrians, and bikes going in whatever direction they feel like (or on whatever side of the street they feel like). Yet, it all also somehow ends up being very rythmic. You see very few cars with even scratches on them. Once you get over the shock of driving into oncoming traffic to make a turn, it's actually very impressive how smoothly traffic flows for the seeming randomness of where on teh road people choose to drive.
I'm trying to pick up some Chinese while I'm here, and I'm proud to say that I'm making rapid progress: I can now pronounce "Beijing" properly. Actually, I've picked up a few other words too, but usually I repeat a phrase that I learn, think I've mastered it, and then forget it as soon as I stop repeating it in my head. Since I realized that I forgot to pack the t-shirts that I had layed out at home, I'm trying to master my Chinese negotiating skills. I have learned that pretty much over 30 quids (about US$3.50) for a t-shirt or a "Lacoste" shirt is getting ripped off and that negotiating isn't really as necessary as just stating a price and sticking to it.
On the food front, everything's been great, and we've been eating for princely sums of about the equivelent of US$1. Today, Leslie, James, and I went to a great little lunch place before visiting the Forbidden City. We toasted (or Gambeed) the owner, who recognized Leslie from 2 days ago and was very excited to see her again. This resulted in much appreciation from the owner and in the gift of 3 fresh cucumbers. We greatfully accepted the gift, took one bite each in the restaurant, walked out pretending to eat them as we left, and quickly found somewhere to get rid of them so that we wouldn't suffer from tap water washed, ground-grown, developing country vegetable stomache problems.
Tomorrow, we begin our trip with Wild China, so the next stop is a Ming Dynasty village.
-Andrew
Beijing