Beijing
Beijing 27 to 29th June
Arriving into Beijing, first impresions,
the city is perminantly hazey with smog, this makes the place look a bit drab.
Beijing is by no means a poor place however,
there are new sky scrapers going up all over the place.
There are a surprising amount of people that can speak english,
it is now thought in school from a very young age.
Things are really cheap though, beer 20 cent for 600ml bottle,
and you can get 5 cent back for returning the bottle.
You can of course go to the trendy bar area and pay 10 times this price for half the size bottle, but why...
Beijing is transforming for the Olimpics in 2008,
For the moment there are still plenty of old lanes, Hutang, where you can walk peacefully between surprizing spread out blocks of the bigger streets.
The buildings in the lanes are a bit reminicent of Dublin back lanes, decaying old buildings and peacemeal rebuilding and extensions with the odd ugly appartment block thrown in.
They are however full of life, everyone strowling or cycling bike, tricicle (with room for goods) or electric bike at a leasurly pace.
You can stop to eat all kinds of odd things for next to nothing.
I went to see the Lama temple, a very colourfull Budist temple.
Spent a whole day at the forbidden city, many of the important parts are covered in scafolding as they are given a shine in preparation for the olimpics.
It doesn't strike you as being very "comunist" here,
Huge modern temples to consumerism (shopping malls), fashionable clothes, digital cameras and mp3 players are the order of the day, remember everything hi tech, or just everything, is made in China so they get it for cheap too.
The government does have a very strong influance on peoples lives though,
when you can get maried (22 for girls 24 for boys),
when you can have childern, I met one couple looking forward to having a child in three years time,
how many children you can have, 1 if your from the city, you can pay alot for a second,
if you're from a village or town, and have a girl first you can have another cild in six years time.
Children get into the cultural sights for free if they are under 1.2 meters tall.
There are loads of signs in english to (or chinglish (bad translation))
A prize goes to who can guess the meaning of the following one,
"please don't throw sundries in the pond"
no...
ok a clue...
the sign is in a bathroom stall.
Arriving into Beijing, first impresions,
the city is perminantly hazey with smog, this makes the place look a bit drab.
Beijing is by no means a poor place however,
there are new sky scrapers going up all over the place.
There are a surprising amount of people that can speak english,
it is now thought in school from a very young age.
Things are really cheap though, beer 20 cent for 600ml bottle,
and you can get 5 cent back for returning the bottle.
You can of course go to the trendy bar area and pay 10 times this price for half the size bottle, but why...
Beijing is transforming for the Olimpics in 2008,
For the moment there are still plenty of old lanes, Hutang, where you can walk peacefully between surprizing spread out blocks of the bigger streets.
The buildings in the lanes are a bit reminicent of Dublin back lanes, decaying old buildings and peacemeal rebuilding and extensions with the odd ugly appartment block thrown in.
They are however full of life, everyone strowling or cycling bike, tricicle (with room for goods) or electric bike at a leasurly pace.
You can stop to eat all kinds of odd things for next to nothing.
I went to see the Lama temple, a very colourfull Budist temple.
Spent a whole day at the forbidden city, many of the important parts are covered in scafolding as they are given a shine in preparation for the olimpics.
It doesn't strike you as being very "comunist" here,
Huge modern temples to consumerism (shopping malls), fashionable clothes, digital cameras and mp3 players are the order of the day, remember everything hi tech, or just everything, is made in China so they get it for cheap too.
The government does have a very strong influance on peoples lives though,
when you can get maried (22 for girls 24 for boys),
when you can have childern, I met one couple looking forward to having a child in three years time,
how many children you can have, 1 if your from the city, you can pay alot for a second,
if you're from a village or town, and have a girl first you can have another cild in six years time.
Children get into the cultural sights for free if they are under 1.2 meters tall.
There are loads of signs in english to (or chinglish (bad translation))
A prize goes to who can guess the meaning of the following one,
"please don't throw sundries in the pond"
no...
ok a clue...
the sign is in a bathroom stall.
posted by conor at 5:55 AM
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