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I don't know if it is my ruggedly handsome good looks (hah!), my newly regrown beard or just the fact that I am a Westerner in China, but I seem to be somewhat of a pseudo-celebrity here. Several times, Chinese people have secretly taken pictures of me and a few of the brave ones have asked to take a picture with me. The few times I have caught them sneaking a picture of me, I tell them it is alright and I pose with them. Other times, I just smile and ask to see the picture. They usually don't speak much English, if any, but they seem to get a real kick out of interacting with me or at least taking my picture! Even if they don't take my picture, most Chinese people tend to just look at me or even stare at me, as if I were an alien. However, most can be very friendly, especially, the younger kids, who will sometimes smile, wave and say 'hello' to me. A few times, the parents have even pointed me out to their children, who, in those situations, are usually very shy, but on one occasion, the little girl actually asked me a few questions in English! I have had many such encounters of strange looks and people staring at me so far in China and it can be a little misconstruing and sometimes really annoying, but you do get used to it and sometimes it can be fun.
In Moscow, I met a Brazilian-born American named Mariana and we met up again in Mongolia. She, like me, has also quit her job and is traveling around the world. She actually has her own wonderful blog at http://livingexperimentblog.com/ , if you are interested in another person's view on world travel. Mariana and I happened to be on the same train to Beijing and even more coincidentally, had booked the exact same hostel in Beijing! We were both super excited to be in China, but first we had to find our way to our hostel. As we walked out of the train station, we were overwhelmed with a huge mass of humanity. I knew I was in the most heavily populated country in the world, but I was still surprised by the amount of people. We waited in line for a taxi, but they didn't know or just didn't want to take us to where our hostel was, so we had to take the metro. So, then we had to wait in line again for metro tickets. We finally got our tickets and then had to wait in line one more time for the security check, which is an x-ray machine for all bags, which are at all metro stops, railroads stations and even at Tiananmen Square. I think you get the point, there is a lot of waiting in lines. Some queue are orderly and barriers are set up that force people to actually stay in line, while in other areas there is no such thing as a line, but just a crowd of people, who are all pushing to get in at once!
Anyway, as we got on the metro, I got my first glimpse of the Chinese peoples strange curiosity with Westerners in their country. As we were boarding the metro, I noticed a girl getting off the metro at the same time that Mariana was getting on and when the girl saw Mariana, she was utterly transfixed. She could not take her eyes off of her. She was entranced! Now, Mariana is a very pretty girl, and so this look of longing on this girls face was priceless, but to me, it was absolutely hilarious! Mariana did not see the other girls reaction, but when I told her about it, she just commented that the other girl probably just mistook her for Brazilian-born model Giselle Bundchen! Yeah, I think I can see the resemblance. ;)
I spent a week in Beijing and I really like the city. The crowds and the smog are a little hard to get used to, but the city is very modern, with lots of things to do and it very easy to get around. After my time in Mongolia, where there seemed to be no such thing as a bathroom, other than a hole in the ground, if I was lucky, and I had to watch everywhere I stepped, unless I stepped in a nice pile of horse, cow, yak or goat poop, Beijing was quite a refreshing change of pace. The smog is Beijing is pretty bad though. I entered China by taking a 30 hour train ride from Mongolia and on entering Northern China, we passed through several mountains, where the views were shrouded by what seemed to be a very thick layer of fog, though I knew it wasn't. It was a little disconcerting, especially, when it was was overcast for the first few days I was there. Oh, I could see the sun at times, trying to fight it's way through the layer of smog and clouds, but it gave off a strange sickly orange color, and it made me wonder if there were ever blue skies here. Luckily, after a few days it rained, which cleared out the smog and the beautiful blue skies, you see in the all pictures, came out… at least for few days. I don't have any breathing issues like asthma or any allergies, so the smog didn't seem to bother me too much, but after a week in Beijing, I actually started feeling short of breath at times.
Unfortunately, I had arrived in Beijing during National Week, which is the Chinese National Holiday, in which, pretty much, the whole country is on vacation. Due to the Holiday, there were tons of Chinese tourists around Beijing, so everywhere I went had huge crowds. The worst place was at the Forbidden City. It took me an hour and a half just to get into the place! The Forbidden City was massive and very interesting, but the crowds took away from the atmosphere. I had to fight to see anything of interest and after awhile it just got annoying. The crowds were pretty bad on Tiananmen Square, as well, but the Square is so large that you could walk around without being hassled too much, though getting onto the Square was an altogether different story. It did have a really nice atmosphere though, as there were several decorations up for the Holiday and just wandering around the Chinese people and seeing them interact with each other was a lot of fun.
My absolute favorite place I visited in Beijing was the Great Wall. I went on a tour, which was basically just transportation and lunch, to the Jinshanling section of the Wall and it did not disappoint. It took about 4 hours to get to it, but it was not very crowded and it had rebuilt and ruined sections. I went with several people from the hostel. We took the skylift to the top of the wall and hiked around for a couple of hours. It was a lot of fun and had some amazing views. Of course, being on the Wall, reminded me of the Mongolian and City Wall episode on "South Park", so I couldn't help but yell a few things at the "Mongerians", while on top of the Wall! :)
I liked Beijing enough, that I stayed a few extra days longer than I had originally planned. It was also nice to be able to stay in one place for longer than a couple of days, for once. I checked out The Temple of Heaven and some Buddhist temples, some of the parks and hutongs, walked around the Olympic Park, and even tried some Peking Duck, which is very tasty! Beijing has a lot to offer and is quite an interesting and enjoyable city to visit. So far, despite the pollution and a few odd quirks, I think I am going to like China!
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