Beijing part 1
Our wedding day was Sunday and we left for our honeymoon the next day. All the wedding crap had been delivered to Curt’s place after the reception and we just had our 4 bags to carry to the airport. 2 large bags and 2 carry-on’s. The 2 large bags were empty.
We got to the airport around 8am and caught our flight to Tokyo. We used Skyprincess’s passes and paid only for the upgrade cost to 1st class. Now I know why Skyprincess says it’s the only way to travel internationally. The flight was very comfortable for a 12-hour flight. We were pampered the entire flight. Unlimited drinks and nice meals. Too bad I can’t really drink without getting sick or I would have abused the drink option.
We were given a movie list and I picked a couple I would have never rented or went to the theater to see. I only remember two of the ones I watched then, Poseidon and Nacho Libra. Poseidon was extremely bad. I’m not sure anyone remembers the original. It was made during the 70s when all the studios were putting out disaster movies. Earthquake, Airport, The Towering Inferno, The Swarm. Although there has been a reemergence of disaster films the past decade, they lack the building of tension the old movies did. That was the problem with Poseidon, there was no tension build-up in the movie.
After the long flight and a bit of a nap, we arrived in Tokyo. We had a couple hours layover before we caught our flight to Beijing and spent some time looking around in the shops. Not much to see in the airport shops, to be quite honest. We did find a Hello Kitty waving cat (Maneki Neko) that we bought. It was adorable and the arm waving was powered by solar panels.
We boarded the JAL flight to Beijing and flew in coach. It wasn’t a bad flight, to be honest. They code-shared with China Eastern and the service was very nice for economy. The economy cabin was in far better shape than any domestic economy class I’ve flown the past 5 years. Skyprincess was very surprised also. I guess we were expecting to board a DC-3 with goats and chickens.
My first impression of Beijing is that it’s a city of bicycles. It was a sea of people and bicycles. There was little attempt to enforce any type of traffic laws, if there was a space, you changed lanes. If there wasn’t a space, you made one. Honking your horn is the norm, unlike in the US where you can live your entire life and never know where the horn in on your car. The car horn is there way of letting people know you are there. People walk out in to traffic constantly, and the cars just drive through waves of people as they cross the street. I expected to see traffic accidents everywhere, but we just didn’t see it happening. For some unknown reason, it works. In the states, it would never work. For one thing, US drivers are selfish a-holes who would never let you in. Chinese drivers always yielded when someone cut them off.
Next thing I noticed about China is that it is a place that abhors a vacuum. If you leave an empty space somewhere, someone is going to fill it. For example, people in the states have a fairly large area of personal space. When we wait in a queue, we leave plenty of space between the next person and us. Not so in China. If you stand too far back, someone is going to cut in front of you. Stand back too far from the counter in a store, and someone is going to step in front of you. Queues are the norm, but lots of people didn’t get the education we got in preschool that cutting in line is a social no-no.
The most disgusting thing we noticed is public spitting. What is up with this? Why do so many Chinese spit in public? And it’s not just spit, but they do the whole loud gather of spittle before you spit thing. The most disgusting thing is to walk down the street and have to dodge all the wet spots from Chinese people spitting on the sidewalk.
The government is trying its best to change this habit for the upcoming Olympics. They have implemented fines for public spitting. If spitting has been curbed, I would hate to have been visiting when it was worse.
I guess I should speak on pollution in Beijing. The air quality is bad, very bad. The particulate pollution in the air is thick. If I spent any long-term time in Beijing, I’d end up wearing masks all the time. Your eyes are constantly burning and you skin just turns ashy from all the gunk in the air. You’d wipe your face and the washcloth comes away black. It’s bad. But the city isn’t really dirty. The government has hired thousands of workers to clean and beautify the city. Everywhere you find lovely landscaping. It really is nice what they are trying to do. I was impressed.
With all the people in Beijing, you’d expect it to be a bit claustrophobic, but it wasn’t. Most of the streets were very wide and the buildings not especially tall. It gave a sense of being wide open. And pedestrian traffic moved at a brisk pace. I didn’t feel unsafe once.
Well… that’s all for now. I’ll talk more about the sites we saw in Beijing tomorrow. Time to get back to work.
-Mizike-
We got to the airport around 8am and caught our flight to Tokyo. We used Skyprincess’s passes and paid only for the upgrade cost to 1st class. Now I know why Skyprincess says it’s the only way to travel internationally. The flight was very comfortable for a 12-hour flight. We were pampered the entire flight. Unlimited drinks and nice meals. Too bad I can’t really drink without getting sick or I would have abused the drink option.
We were given a movie list and I picked a couple I would have never rented or went to the theater to see. I only remember two of the ones I watched then, Poseidon and Nacho Libra. Poseidon was extremely bad. I’m not sure anyone remembers the original. It was made during the 70s when all the studios were putting out disaster movies. Earthquake, Airport, The Towering Inferno, The Swarm. Although there has been a reemergence of disaster films the past decade, they lack the building of tension the old movies did. That was the problem with Poseidon, there was no tension build-up in the movie.
After the long flight and a bit of a nap, we arrived in Tokyo. We had a couple hours layover before we caught our flight to Beijing and spent some time looking around in the shops. Not much to see in the airport shops, to be quite honest. We did find a Hello Kitty waving cat (Maneki Neko) that we bought. It was adorable and the arm waving was powered by solar panels.
We boarded the JAL flight to Beijing and flew in coach. It wasn’t a bad flight, to be honest. They code-shared with China Eastern and the service was very nice for economy. The economy cabin was in far better shape than any domestic economy class I’ve flown the past 5 years. Skyprincess was very surprised also. I guess we were expecting to board a DC-3 with goats and chickens.
My first impression of Beijing is that it’s a city of bicycles. It was a sea of people and bicycles. There was little attempt to enforce any type of traffic laws, if there was a space, you changed lanes. If there wasn’t a space, you made one. Honking your horn is the norm, unlike in the US where you can live your entire life and never know where the horn in on your car. The car horn is there way of letting people know you are there. People walk out in to traffic constantly, and the cars just drive through waves of people as they cross the street. I expected to see traffic accidents everywhere, but we just didn’t see it happening. For some unknown reason, it works. In the states, it would never work. For one thing, US drivers are selfish a-holes who would never let you in. Chinese drivers always yielded when someone cut them off.
Next thing I noticed about China is that it is a place that abhors a vacuum. If you leave an empty space somewhere, someone is going to fill it. For example, people in the states have a fairly large area of personal space. When we wait in a queue, we leave plenty of space between the next person and us. Not so in China. If you stand too far back, someone is going to cut in front of you. Stand back too far from the counter in a store, and someone is going to step in front of you. Queues are the norm, but lots of people didn’t get the education we got in preschool that cutting in line is a social no-no.
The most disgusting thing we noticed is public spitting. What is up with this? Why do so many Chinese spit in public? And it’s not just spit, but they do the whole loud gather of spittle before you spit thing. The most disgusting thing is to walk down the street and have to dodge all the wet spots from Chinese people spitting on the sidewalk.
The government is trying its best to change this habit for the upcoming Olympics. They have implemented fines for public spitting. If spitting has been curbed, I would hate to have been visiting when it was worse.
I guess I should speak on pollution in Beijing. The air quality is bad, very bad. The particulate pollution in the air is thick. If I spent any long-term time in Beijing, I’d end up wearing masks all the time. Your eyes are constantly burning and you skin just turns ashy from all the gunk in the air. You’d wipe your face and the washcloth comes away black. It’s bad. But the city isn’t really dirty. The government has hired thousands of workers to clean and beautify the city. Everywhere you find lovely landscaping. It really is nice what they are trying to do. I was impressed.
With all the people in Beijing, you’d expect it to be a bit claustrophobic, but it wasn’t. Most of the streets were very wide and the buildings not especially tall. It gave a sense of being wide open. And pedestrian traffic moved at a brisk pace. I didn’t feel unsafe once.
Well… that’s all for now. I’ll talk more about the sites we saw in Beijing tomorrow. Time to get back to work.
-Mizike-
posted by Mizike at 11:47 AM
2 Comments:
the main thing about chinese drivers in china is that they watch their front and only their front. they never look behind them to see if it's clear. they just do what they want. you avoid traffic accidents by not hitting the person in front of you, not by being courteous.
there are accidents, but not many more than the states.
I always figured that the traffic rules were "if you honk it's legal" and "traffic lights are merely a suggestion."
SO GLAD YOU'RE HOME SAFELY! (and that story about the evil cat lady is a bit frightening!)
I really need to continue posting on my trip. I just haven't been motivated =(
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