Beijing

Beijing is a witness to China's radical capability of developing its own infrastructure. From the second we left the train station we were confronted with a cosmopolitan city not much unlike other great American and European cities. It was surprising to see greater diversity in the city; and very nice to have a few less people staring at us and asking for photos. The city was quite a bit busier then normal because it was China's National Day, and the people were still excited from the Olympics this last summer. Everyone was glowing with National pride not entirely dissimilar to the United States of America after the September 11th attacks. The only thing missing is the anger that everyone felt in America.

Train travel was something new and exciting to me on this trip. What you do is buy a ticket for an overnight train, and sleep in a bed for an entire night and then wake up the next morning at your destination. Personally, I found this much more enjoyable and less stressful then a plane ride with a couple of huge airports attached at each end. Though a plane ride does take less time it is nice to have the option available to you. The trains have three different types of tickets on this particular trip we had what is called a soft sleeper; there are two more types a hard sleeper and seats (which I will definitely never try). The soft sleeper was nice you are in a small room with three other people and there are two bunk beds attached to the wall. The beds are not the best thing you have ever slept on, but they are not your kitchen floor either.

The first thing I did in Beijing was Taylor, a Chinese friend, and me went to the China Open Tennis Tournament Finals. The tournament is not a famous one in tennis, but seems to be growing in popularity over the last couple years. Unfortunately though Chinese people are not familiar with proper tennis edict, and the tournament resulted in some of the players expressing unhappiness over the quality of the tournament. I expect this will change as tennis grows in popularity with people here. There was one event I was particularly fond of. A guy started walking around in the lower stands and when Andy Roddick lost the point he yelled at the guy; "Do you mind?!" and the guy just waved back then Andy Roddick just yelled again "We are only playing a game here." The best part was the guy was a foreigner and probably understood him. The whole mens single finals were kind of comedic because you could tell Roddick was frustrated with the lack of Tennis ignorance being displayed.

The Great Wall was the first sight I visited with one of my friend's. The experience was a pretty interesting one and an all day event, since we were traveling on a small budget at the time we had to budget ourselves carefully. So we ended up taking a public bus there instead of a private tour bus. The bus was much less expensive, but we ended up waiting in a really long line, though the line took surprisingly less time then we thought upon walking up. The bus was made like a tour bus (there were some that were converted from public transportation, which is less comfortable), but in the traditional Chinese way they piled in as many on as they could so people were standing for two hours with no room to move (Which is not as bad as I thought). When our bus was coming towards the wall it seemed like the top of it was just a moving sea of people. Walking on the wall can be quite an adventure because of the steepness of the wall and how smooth some of the stones on top of the wall were. Some Chinese people again asked to take photos with me as we were climbing it is always so strange to me when this happens.

Beijing also has many some American restaurants that I was kind of surprised to see Outback Steakhouse and TGI Friday's, but a welcome surprise when you need some more familiar foods. Food has been one of the more difficult adjustments for me. I also saw a Bally's Total Fitness which was probably the biggest surprise to me. Some of the other places we visited were the Olympic Stadiums, Tiananmen square, a couple temples, and the silk market. The nice thing is that public transportation is not all that expensive with the subway system and bus system in Beijing. If you want to take a taxi though it is a little more than three times the intial cost in Wuhan. The cost of living is significantly higher in Beijing like most famous big cities as well. I would probably need to make four times what I make in Wuhan to maintain the same lifestyle in Beijing.

The Forbidden City was a place that created a lot of questions for me about China. Most of the famous architecture in China is known for its incredible size. Things like the Great Wall, the Olympic stadiums, and a few others. Also, when I visited the Forbidden City there was a giant portrait of Chairman Mao Ze Dong over the entrance, and it is supposed to represent the man who took them out of imperial China and into communism. Since, being in China I have also found out that you must pay the government to be a part of the Communist party and have no religious belief. Only ten percent of China are actually party members due to the cost and a few other things that I am not yet clear on. Some of these things really make me wonder about the relationship between government and our desire to believe in its ability to bring us justice and prosperity. I wonder what it says about Christians.

Anyway, Beijing was wonderful tip and it was wonderful to be there during the National Holiday and observe how China celebrated its National Day in comparison to ours. But I would like to go back some time when it is a little less crowded. The pictures tell all you need to know about the crowds.