beijing
Flew from Shanghai to cold Beijing. The hotel was nicely located by the Forbidden City but the sandwiches came in at 14 euro's. Nice. I was surprised it was still so cold in Beijing but not so surprised by the dreadful pollution. Everyday a mist hangs low over the city. Wonder how that'll be sorted in time for the Olympics. The chronic traffic problem will be easier to fix; just issue a state order that driving is banned. I bet they'll do it too because they can!
Aside from the cold, Beijing is a huge building and restoration site. From what I have been told, the human energy of the city is being expended on meeting the Olympic deadline. Face is everything here. The construction isn't that much of a probelm for us but some the significant historical sites are being restored. The presense of bamboo scaffolds around many buildings is a little limiting. The Forbidden City being the hardest to take. I felt sorry that my Mother couldn't see it in its entirety. I have seen it before. At least the Great Wall was in good shape. We went to a different place from last time I was there. More clean, neat and accessible to the tourist. Mother did well climbing the 45% degree gradiant. Come to think of it, I did too. It was hard work.
We had the pleasure of being on our tour with this horrible, bigoted, bald American, who sported a rather fetching ponytail. He was accompained by this extremely pretty Chinese girl. I thought she might be a prostitute but later, at dinner, we discovered that they had just married. A tradegy given the 30 year plus age gap, the enormous girt differential, the fact that the man was clearly a pig! He lives in Florida. I gathered that he received a huge insurance claim as the roof of his house was blown off in a hurricane. Clearly, it was time to buy a younger wife. I wonder what his two kids think. But this Chinese girl was blissfully happy, no doubt about the prospect of going to a country where everything is wonderful, money lies around on the streets and all things attainable. But I forsee problems.
The man was a pig. He ate like one, he had no manners, he voted for George W Bush (one of the genuine ones in Florida then!) and he admitted it proudly. He was annoyed that it would be difficult to get his new found love into the US as homeland security made things difficult. But he thinks it's important to keep the dark people out and of course, the A-rabs! He believes the war in Iraqi was needed as the Iraqi's were on the verge of destroying America. I left the table when he started harping on that America would have looked like Europe at the end of WWII.
As part of this tour, we were taken to a Jade factory and a Chinese heribal doctor. We studiously aoided buying any of the over-priced wares. The Doctor had diagnosed an expensive array of herbs for my Mother. She declined. When my examination came, he advised me to exercise more and watch my diet. What about my partial hearing ! What about smoking! What about drinking! Still, I thought it a fair judgement as it means I can continue to as before...with one workable ear.
Aside from the cold, Beijing is a huge building and restoration site. From what I have been told, the human energy of the city is being expended on meeting the Olympic deadline. Face is everything here. The construction isn't that much of a probelm for us but some the significant historical sites are being restored. The presense of bamboo scaffolds around many buildings is a little limiting. The Forbidden City being the hardest to take. I felt sorry that my Mother couldn't see it in its entirety. I have seen it before. At least the Great Wall was in good shape. We went to a different place from last time I was there. More clean, neat and accessible to the tourist. Mother did well climbing the 45% degree gradiant. Come to think of it, I did too. It was hard work.
We had the pleasure of being on our tour with this horrible, bigoted, bald American, who sported a rather fetching ponytail. He was accompained by this extremely pretty Chinese girl. I thought she might be a prostitute but later, at dinner, we discovered that they had just married. A tradegy given the 30 year plus age gap, the enormous girt differential, the fact that the man was clearly a pig! He lives in Florida. I gathered that he received a huge insurance claim as the roof of his house was blown off in a hurricane. Clearly, it was time to buy a younger wife. I wonder what his two kids think. But this Chinese girl was blissfully happy, no doubt about the prospect of going to a country where everything is wonderful, money lies around on the streets and all things attainable. But I forsee problems.
The man was a pig. He ate like one, he had no manners, he voted for George W Bush (one of the genuine ones in Florida then!) and he admitted it proudly. He was annoyed that it would be difficult to get his new found love into the US as homeland security made things difficult. But he thinks it's important to keep the dark people out and of course, the A-rabs! He believes the war in Iraqi was needed as the Iraqi's were on the verge of destroying America. I left the table when he started harping on that America would have looked like Europe at the end of WWII.
As part of this tour, we were taken to a Jade factory and a Chinese heribal doctor. We studiously aoided buying any of the over-priced wares. The Doctor had diagnosed an expensive array of herbs for my Mother. She declined. When my examination came, he advised me to exercise more and watch my diet. What about my partial hearing ! What about smoking! What about drinking! Still, I thought it a fair judgement as it means I can continue to as before...with one workable ear.
posted by Ciarán at 8:40 a.m.
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