Beijing, China

   The contrast in countries is enormous.  Beijing is a big city like Tokyo and its streets are relatively clean.  The air is not too bad since a front came through with a lot of wind the day before we arrived.  There is a tremendous amount of dust however.  The driving is wild.  The roads are huge but the drivers weave from lane to lane in heavy traffic just barely missing one another.  Drivers never stop for pedestrians and bikers try to cross many lanes of traffic.  No one wears a helmet and passengers, including children, just sit on the backs of the bikes. Horns honk, fortunately not loudly.  It seems to be a constant game of chicken, but someone always allows you in eventually.

   As far as the pace is concerned, it is much faster.  There are great crowds at most of the sights and pushing is very common.  Our largest was on Saturday at Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  Both are huge.  Our guide will block areas so we can see or Deb can get a picture.  Where in Japan in a restaurant, the wait staff is quiet, very attentive and the food beautifully presented in very small bites and the wait staff traditionally dressed, here the restaurants are rushed, loud and the food slapped down on the table in front of you and everyone is casual to the point of poor taste.  That being said, the food is great.  We have had multiple great meals, from a farmer restaurant in village of 100 or so and no Occidentals anywhere around, to Peking Duck in one of the famous duck restaurants where they have four open oven wood fires in the middle of the city and on the 6^th floor of a high rise (how do they do that) cooking a constant stream of ducks to be presented and carved at the table.  It was an elegant setting.

   We are struggling with the Internet.  Google and Facebook are blocked so we have had to buy a VPN connection to use continue to blog.  Lucy, our Bowdoin student and her father helped us set it up.

   We have another day here and then move West.  Perhaps the pace of life will slow outside the capital.

Crown at Tiananmen Sq

Mao's Mausoleum Tiananmen Square

Forbidden City one of many buildings