Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
I am hesitant to post this because I just cant seem to get this into the right words, and I apologize for the choppiness of it, I just cant seem condense it all down and do the subject justice. If anyone wants to know more, ask I will do my best to answer.
To borrow a line from Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Beijing is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to Beijing.
To compare; Beijing City, covers 1,763 square miles, Beijing municipality, 6,500 square miles. Tokyo Metropolitan prefecture 837 square miles, Greater London covers an area of 609 square miles; New York City's land area covers 321 square miles. Beijing is big; there are no suburbs no other boroughs just Beijing, then the rest of China.
The city of Beijing is both incredibly modern and ancient, overwhelming and just plain huge. I have been to New York City several times and I grew up and learned to drive in and around Boston and neither come close to Beijing in size, population, construction, or crazy drivers. I will never drive a car or ride a bicycle in Beijing. I will walk and take buses and cabs but thats it. Traffic laws in Beijing exist, but I fully believe they are suggested. The fact that there are so many cars, buses bicycles and pedestrians in the city and there are very few accidents leads me to believe that all the drivers are either incredibly skilled or just plain crazy.
The entire city appears to be a construction site in order to get ready for the 2008 Olympics. The subway is being expanded, roads are being added buildings are being built, elevated train tracks are being constructed, old neighborhoods are being torn down and historical landmarks are being renovated. One entire building at the Forbidden city was encased in a big rectangular box of logs and canvas that was greater that 4 stories high and on the front they have painted the exact view you would get had that building not been covered. The same covering was found over huge buildings at the Summer Palace, but no painting on the front.
When I first arrived I was a bit upset at the loss of history going on in Beijing. They were leveling neighborhoods that were very likely 100s of year old. However towards the end of my trip I found that this had a lot to do with sanitation. These areas tend to be were people that are from the countryside go to live and the sanitation is poor. It is better than what they have in the countryside but not at all well for a major city. As I sat in a traffic jam in one of these sections I saw piles of trash that had been swept into the street and left there and this being an unusually hot day for Beijing in May (90 degrees) the smell of sewage in this area was also fairly common. Most unfortunately for Beijing this is a necessary part of modernization. They simply have no way of modernize these sections. And the people that are displaced are given more modern homes in which to live. Almost all housing in Beijing is in very tall apartment type buildings, but generally you own the apartment so I guess I should say it is more like a condominium
They also appear to be trying to deal with wide spread pollution. They have drained rivers in order to clean them, in one they have drained it and are in the process of covering the river banks and floor in concrete. And yet I see no sewage treatment facilities, but that does not mean they are not there, Beijing is huge and I was not everywhere in Beijing.
Vendors are everywhere; some have permits some do not. At Tienten North Gate I got caught in a stampede of people an bikes running away from an official that rode up on a bicycle. These were vendors without permits selling stuff in an area that was not permitted. If they stayed they would have lost there stuff and been fined. What was interesting to me, after the shock went away of the sudden stampede, is that there had to be 30 or more vendors running away from a very small woman that rode up and I am not sure she was over 5 feet tall. That would never have happened in the US, there would have been arguing and likely fighting and arrests. You simply do not argue with officials or police in Beijing, not if you want to keep your stuff, not get fined and not be taken into custody. However if you have a problem they are exactly the ones you wish to see. Want directions in Beijing, ask a police officer.
There are no malls in Beijing just department stored 5 to 7 stories high that take up a city block. Grocery store in the basement, cloths, jewelry, furniture, etc on the above floors and the top floor is a series of restraints. And while on the subject of restaurants, the food is great. There are restaurants representing just about every nationality and province in China in Beijing.
You would never have to cook there, unless you want to; you can get excellent food everywhere and no preservatives so it tends to be very fresh. Grocery stores, restaurants, bakeries. Stay away from the little vendors that pop up on street corers, not all too sanitary. You also do not want to drink water out of a tap from anywhere. Boil it first or drink bottled water, tea seemed to be safe everywhere I ate.
Restaurants can range from huge multistoried buildings to small little takeout places (better than any take out place or Chinese restaurant I have been to in the US). You can find Kentucky fried chicken, McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Papa Johns throughout Beijing. Beijing Pizza hut is one of the most expensive restaurants in Beijing and very fancy by comparison to US Pizza huts. Also I have never seen a Squid, Crab leg, Wasabi pizza in a US Pizza hut, but they got it there. And before anyone asks What the heck were you doing in an American restaurant in Beijing it was not my idea, you can blame pizza hut and Papa Johns on my in-laws.
Beijing has everything you can find in any city except one thing; it appears to have a very low crime rate. Per my wife and her family the cities in China tend to be safe and the countryside tends to be more dangerous, the exact opposite of the US. Rush hour however is pretty much like any rush hour in any large city. And since the police are out in force at rush hour they laws tend to be followed more closely at that time.
And EVERYTHING is negotiable particularly if youre Chinese, not so much if your not. A member of my wifes family got a 300 Yuan fine for talking on the cell phone while driving and negotiated it, on the spot, down to 100 Yuan, no bribery, just negotiation. You are required to carry what I can only describe as a Government issued debit card. You out money in this like a bank account but it is used to pay fines. Negotiate it down to 100 and the card is run through a machine that takes out 100 Yuan.
To borrow a line from Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Beijing is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to Beijing.
To compare; Beijing City, covers 1,763 square miles, Beijing municipality, 6,500 square miles. Tokyo Metropolitan prefecture 837 square miles, Greater London covers an area of 609 square miles; New York City's land area covers 321 square miles. Beijing is big; there are no suburbs no other boroughs just Beijing, then the rest of China.
The city of Beijing is both incredibly modern and ancient, overwhelming and just plain huge. I have been to New York City several times and I grew up and learned to drive in and around Boston and neither come close to Beijing in size, population, construction, or crazy drivers. I will never drive a car or ride a bicycle in Beijing. I will walk and take buses and cabs but thats it. Traffic laws in Beijing exist, but I fully believe they are suggested. The fact that there are so many cars, buses bicycles and pedestrians in the city and there are very few accidents leads me to believe that all the drivers are either incredibly skilled or just plain crazy.
The entire city appears to be a construction site in order to get ready for the 2008 Olympics. The subway is being expanded, roads are being added buildings are being built, elevated train tracks are being constructed, old neighborhoods are being torn down and historical landmarks are being renovated. One entire building at the Forbidden city was encased in a big rectangular box of logs and canvas that was greater that 4 stories high and on the front they have painted the exact view you would get had that building not been covered. The same covering was found over huge buildings at the Summer Palace, but no painting on the front.
When I first arrived I was a bit upset at the loss of history going on in Beijing. They were leveling neighborhoods that were very likely 100s of year old. However towards the end of my trip I found that this had a lot to do with sanitation. These areas tend to be were people that are from the countryside go to live and the sanitation is poor. It is better than what they have in the countryside but not at all well for a major city. As I sat in a traffic jam in one of these sections I saw piles of trash that had been swept into the street and left there and this being an unusually hot day for Beijing in May (90 degrees) the smell of sewage in this area was also fairly common. Most unfortunately for Beijing this is a necessary part of modernization. They simply have no way of modernize these sections. And the people that are displaced are given more modern homes in which to live. Almost all housing in Beijing is in very tall apartment type buildings, but generally you own the apartment so I guess I should say it is more like a condominium
They also appear to be trying to deal with wide spread pollution. They have drained rivers in order to clean them, in one they have drained it and are in the process of covering the river banks and floor in concrete. And yet I see no sewage treatment facilities, but that does not mean they are not there, Beijing is huge and I was not everywhere in Beijing.
Vendors are everywhere; some have permits some do not. At Tienten North Gate I got caught in a stampede of people an bikes running away from an official that rode up on a bicycle. These were vendors without permits selling stuff in an area that was not permitted. If they stayed they would have lost there stuff and been fined. What was interesting to me, after the shock went away of the sudden stampede, is that there had to be 30 or more vendors running away from a very small woman that rode up and I am not sure she was over 5 feet tall. That would never have happened in the US, there would have been arguing and likely fighting and arrests. You simply do not argue with officials or police in Beijing, not if you want to keep your stuff, not get fined and not be taken into custody. However if you have a problem they are exactly the ones you wish to see. Want directions in Beijing, ask a police officer.
There are no malls in Beijing just department stored 5 to 7 stories high that take up a city block. Grocery store in the basement, cloths, jewelry, furniture, etc on the above floors and the top floor is a series of restraints. And while on the subject of restaurants, the food is great. There are restaurants representing just about every nationality and province in China in Beijing.
You would never have to cook there, unless you want to; you can get excellent food everywhere and no preservatives so it tends to be very fresh. Grocery stores, restaurants, bakeries. Stay away from the little vendors that pop up on street corers, not all too sanitary. You also do not want to drink water out of a tap from anywhere. Boil it first or drink bottled water, tea seemed to be safe everywhere I ate.
Restaurants can range from huge multistoried buildings to small little takeout places (better than any take out place or Chinese restaurant I have been to in the US). You can find Kentucky fried chicken, McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Papa Johns throughout Beijing. Beijing Pizza hut is one of the most expensive restaurants in Beijing and very fancy by comparison to US Pizza huts. Also I have never seen a Squid, Crab leg, Wasabi pizza in a US Pizza hut, but they got it there. And before anyone asks What the heck were you doing in an American restaurant in Beijing it was not my idea, you can blame pizza hut and Papa Johns on my in-laws.
Beijing has everything you can find in any city except one thing; it appears to have a very low crime rate. Per my wife and her family the cities in China tend to be safe and the countryside tends to be more dangerous, the exact opposite of the US. Rush hour however is pretty much like any rush hour in any large city. And since the police are out in force at rush hour they laws tend to be followed more closely at that time.
And EVERYTHING is negotiable particularly if youre Chinese, not so much if your not. A member of my wifes family got a 300 Yuan fine for talking on the cell phone while driving and negotiated it, on the spot, down to 100 Yuan, no bribery, just negotiation. You are required to carry what I can only describe as a Government issued debit card. You out money in this like a bank account but it is used to pay fines. Negotiate it down to 100 and the card is run through a machine that takes out 100 Yuan.
I'll get to China and the Far East in general. I have a thing for China. Enjoy reading your posts about it, look forward to more.
