One World, One Dream

I'm starting to wonder if I've spent to much time in Wales, as my first reaction to every city we get to seems to be marvelling at how big everything is! And Beijing is no different - it is a very,very, very big city.

Arriving on the train into Beijing's main station Luke and I had prepared ourselves for the culture shock of a lifetime, so we were quite surprised to find that the city had been "olympified" to quite the extent that it had. The biggest shock was not the culture difference, but how overtly capitalist this red city appears to be. There is a McDonalds, Starbucks or KFC on every corner. The main shopping street did lights, opulence and glitz up there with any city in the west and you could buy any designer label you wanted.

It is difficult to know how much of Beijing has been cleaned up/changed/improved/removed for the Olympics, but I think its fair to say that there has been a huge amount of upheaval in this city over the last few years. There are a vast number of brand new buildings, the streets are incredibly clean from litter, road signs and information is all in English as well as Chinese characters and all pubic toilets now have one 'western style toilet'. Even the famous smog isn't as thick as it is in other cities in China (although it is still there). There is also an excellent transport system from the electric buses to the metro system, most of the lines on which hadn't been built when our 2005 guide book was written. One of the first things we noticed about Beijing (arriving from Ulan Bator) is that it appears remarkably safe, there is very little visible crime (I won't comment on why) and you feel at ease walking around town at any time of night.

Clearly a fast changing city, it is still an historic and fascinating place to be. There is so much to see and do in Beijing, we could have stayed there for a month and not been bored. It is not just the sights that you can see (which I will come back to), you could spend a lifetime walking through all the markets, parks and hutongs. Hutongs are hidden back alleys with literally hundreds of homes, stalls, shops and cafes, which you can get lost in for hours. Chinese parks (one of which we spent a lovely sunny morning in) are not quite like British parks. Stunningly beautiful they have streams, little bridges and (in the case of the park we went to) lakes. Local people go there to practice Tai Chi, play Mah Jung and swim, whatever the weather! We both enjoyed the atmosphere and feel of Beijing, and it has been one of my favourite places so far - I personally could have spent a month there just eating.

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Louise)

xx