In Beijing

I'm in Beijing and I already like it 80 times better than Shanghai. The train got in at 6:30am and I took the subway to the hostel without too much trouble aside from the fact that my bag is supremely heavy!! I am on the free internet they have here; I got in about 8am. The subway here is really primitive, they use paper tickets which you give to a woman before you go down the stairs; there are no turnstiles.

Above Qianmen subway station; honoring workers


I slept from 9am to 1pm because I wasn't able to sleep much on the train despite being in a bed. The train last night was pretty interesting. I couldn't see anything out the window because it was dark but I was in a sleeper cabin with four beds and three other people who were all Chinese. Two women and a 12-year old boy who found me very interesting! He spoke a little bit of English, just what he had learned at school-- more than my Chinese so that's how we communicated. He asked, "Do you have friend in Beijing?" and I said, "One." He wrote, "I am your friend?" and gave me two rocks. I gave him a Singles pin and a BSR sticker and showed him a video of the What Cheer? Brigade which he thought was hilarious. He wants me to call and email them.

My friend, Jinhua/English name Jerry


When I woke up this afternoon, I went walking around the area. The hostel is near some hutongs, which are the backstreets/lanes with all sorts of hidden enclaves, just the sort of scene that you think of when you think of China. Some people called "Helloooo!" so I would say "Nihao!" One older guy knew a bit more English though and said "Where are you from?" I said, "United States" and he said, "Ahh. A long time ago, I fought for China with North Korea." We were both smiling; he only had one tooth. I was amazed to meet him, especially on a random walk my first day in Beijing. I wasn't sure what to say so said, "Really? Wow.. well, we are friends now." He liked that and told his friends what I said and said, "Yes! Friends."

Other than the hutongs, the area is a little touristy but the commercialism here doesn't even vaguely approach Shanghai. In the tourist areas of Shanghai, it is always "Hello, lady? Bag? Watch? Bag? Watch? Bag?" in rapid succession. Here, it is "Hello, sir. Take a look. Come in and take a look." As soon as you do, they pick up the most expensive item within arms length to show you. Shake your head and the next thing that appears is the tackiest item in the shop.

Many of the stores around here carry reproduced 1960s and 70s propaganda posters of Mao and Stalin. At first, I was a little taken aback by the overt communism (the antithesis to the 'Vote or Die' T-shirts?) but I think it's actually capitalism-ization of Communism in progress. Weird..

The nearest subway station to hear is the southernmost end of Tiannamen Square, which is very close to where Chairman Mao's body is on display. When I first got to China, I had no idea Mao would still be everywhere. I think it is mostly state pushed. My friend Leo told me people or our generation have very few opinions about him-- they don't think about him; it is relevant to their parents, not them. This makes a little bit of sense to me if compared to America... most of the people I know my age could care less about Nixon (who is actually very well regarded here as he was the first American president to acknowledge the "new" Chinese government in 1972 with a visit, 23 years after the Communists came to power) but Nixon also did not cause the deaths of 30 million of his countrymen. At the same time, Leo wanted to know what Americans think of Mao and was truly shocked when I said scary.