Wow, what a country. Too much to say so I'll give some general impressions and the story of one pretty funny night. I've got a novel developing in a word doc for those who really want to sift through all my ramblings.
I got here at 4am and Damien was ready at the airport to meet me, which was pretty solid. Turns out he'd stayed up all night partying with a friend so as not to sleep through his alarm and miss me or something. We cabbed it back to his place and I got my first taste of Beijing living. Apartments are smaller here, though his is pretty nice. The toilet here's just like back home, which is pretty solid because that's not always the case. We visited friends of his who have 'the hole'. I have not had to hole it yet, when I do I'll keep the experience to myself.
Beijing is crazy huge. It goes on and on. Skyscrapers everywhere and there's no sign of stopping as there's construction every few blocks.
I had a wild moment a few nights ago. Coming back from the subway I took a wrong turn and walked about 20 minutes in the wrong direction. I ended up trying to get my bearings by going up on to a footbridge over an 8 lane highway. Between the traffic shaking the bridge and the huge neon covered buildings everywhere I almost lost it. I was gripping on to the handrailling in complete awe. The feeling will definitely stay with me for a long time. I was completely insignifigant in this huge glowing city with absolutely no understanding of the language to guide me home. Perspective inducing experience for sure.
There is almost no english here. Even ordering food is difficult for me. I have to go to places that have picture menus, or often I'll just eat street food since I can just point at whatever they're cooking and hold up some fingers.
Today I had what looked somewhat like a corndog? It wasn't but it was tasty. A lot of the street food is served on a stick, I haven't gotten too wild yet, they have scorpions and seahorses etc... wildest I've gotten is BBQ squid, tasty. Oh, and chicken hearts.
Damien has to work so I spend most days alone. I've gotten the subway system pretty down and have been able to get around to some historic sites. I got 'tea scammed' in old beijing, but it could have been much worse from what I've heard.
That's the sad thing, when I'm out anyone I've met that is local and speaks English is trying to run a scam. It's a biproduct of the situation out here though, so it's no biggie, I'm learning to smile and keep walking.
The markets are awesome. I've spent a lot of time in them. Interesting new fruits and meats to try. And of course the uh..'imitation' products. I got a great TAG watch and some leather gloves the first day. Today I bought some sunglasses. I'm pretty sure I grossly overpaid as the woman accepted my first counterbid with a large smile. (25 yuan or about 3.40$)
Things are really cheap, we have these huge amazing meals that come out to 5 or 6 bucks. Been eating well, had hot pot the other night, it was awesome.
I've seen a lot of Beijing now. Most of it from the back of Damien's "Den Dou Chaio" or electric bike. It's a great way to see the city, better than bus or cab because I feel like I'm really experiencing it, all the sounds, smells and cold. It's also terrifying as traffic here is nutty, lacks strict rules and is full of honking speeding cars at all times. It's like playing a really big live version of that old video game 'paper boy'. Sometimes it justs seems like people/cars/dudes carrying loads of huge tree branches (no joke) are trying to get us.
The weather's freezing and the air quality's pretty rough. Smoking is prevelant and I'm not too happy about that. In fact I'm taking it easy today because I've developed a cough that's worrying me. I feel about a step away from Bronchitis so I'm gonna lay up for a little and not press my luck.
I could go on forever really because it's just so different here, but who'd keep reading right? Here's a night out that was a blast:
We took the Den Dao Cha across town to have dinner and meet up with Damien's boss for drinks. Along the way I was holding Damien's phone/MP3 player out so we had some tunes. We were cruising along to Modest Mouse's "Bukowski"(thanks Amanda) and "Juicy" By Biggie. A couple of songs by artists who I'm sure weren't envisioning two guys on an electric bike when they wrote them. Definitely not a Bukowski moment.
Dinner was some amazing hot pot, then we met Damien's boss in a small smoky bar decorated with movie posters from America and Italy. Damien's in the film industry, so there was some shop talk and one of the other guests was a local documentary director. He knew the bar owner so we were comped a 50 year old bottle of the local booze.
I don't remember the name, which is fine, because no one should ever seek this stuff out. It's definitely one of the worst boozes I've ever had, and it was sad because the bottle was aged and expensive, and the drink's very traditional. We tried to be polite and had a few shots, luckily they realized it was wasted on Damien and I so they split the rest amongst themselves.
We left everyone at the bar and stopped off at a big dance club. Just Damien, Me and 600 or 700 chinese. Seriously no other Americans. But the DJ's were good and it was a good atmosphere. Since no one spoke English anyway I decided a way to meet some people would be to head out to the dance floor. I started doing some '80's style moves that had Damien in hysterics and the locals in awe. Seriously they were lovin' it, so we hung out with everybody for a while then around 4 that was enough.
The ride home got a little hairy, as the electric bike died about 12 blocks away from Damien's and he'd removed the pedals when he first got the thing. So the two of us tried to glide the damn thing by pushing in unison, that was a hell of a time and eventually I just hopped off and jogged alongside in the freezing dark Rocky style.
A stop off at the market for late night snacks and that was the night.
I'm listing where I want to go and what I want to do with my remaining time so far I've got:
The Terra Cotta Warriors in Shian
The start of the great wall at the beach in shaoyen
Maybe Shanghai
Ice climbing up a waterfall in the Muyin District (I have to organize the tour though because their scheduled trip is the day I leave. I hope I can make this happen)
Ok, that seems like enough for one sitting. Life is good, this place is wild.
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