Alex's Asian Adventure

Last night, at around 1 PM I boarded BA 1039 Heathrow to Beijing. I got somewhat lucky with the flight, because I ended up sitting with two backpackers from northern England (Manchester-area) who were going on a 6-month tour of China, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and the US.

I must compliment BA, since the flight not only ran on time but also got to Beijing a bit early. The adventure begins now.

We'll call these two backpacking dudes Phill and Lee, since those are their names. We disembarked from the plane and walked through the compeletely deserted airport to the baggage area, by way of the quarantine check & immigration checks, which were the smoothest customs people I've ever seen in my life - probably because they don't speak english.

Observations about the airport:

• It is huge and deserted.
• It is well-decorated, with fancy Chinese artwork
• The security people are all young-looking (20-ish?) and all look like they have a brick up their asses. Probably because they do.

Anyway. We get to the luggage carousel. I get my bags. Lee gets his bag. Phill.... doesn't. So now Phill is a backpacker with no backpack, and the backpack will likely come to MY hotel because these guys didn't know the address of theirs. Pretty weird. Anyway, as a thank you I bummed a ride on their hotel transportation car thing, and their hostel seems to be up teh street from my own. Good enough.

I don't know how people survive in this place. The drivers are RIDICULOUSLY aggressive. If you think Toronto is bad, you'll find London worse. And if you think London is bad, you'll find Beijing frightening as all hell. Apparently pedestrians do not have the right of way. Ever. Example: we were driving out of the airport parking lot, down a laneway, with people crossing to get to or from their car. Our driver honks MERCILESLLY! GET OUT OF MY WAY YOU BASTARDS! I'M IMPORTANT AND VEHICLE-ARMED!!!

Holy hell. On the way here, we nearly ran over a cyclist. If you think being a pedestrian is bad, being a cyclist must be worse - you're with these psychodrviers in traffic!

Other observations about Beijing:

• It looks like the outskirts of Beijing were built in the Mao era and look like soviet construction, super-ugly concrete highrise hideosity. Unreal.
• When you get closer to the city centre and go through the business area, everything looks very modern.
• Where I am, near Tiannanmen Square, is largely a dump with the exception of this hotel. It's all small alleyways with people everywhere, lots of them cooking food in stackable devices of some sort. I'm going to investigate.
• The place is quite polluted. The whole city is covered in a grey haze, and some people wear face masks. Hmmm....

The good news is that my hotel is quite nice - hot running water for the shower & everything! I splurged and reserved TWO beds in one room, so that I have my own room. I'm thinking that's not a bad idea until I get my bearings and figure my shyte out. It's now 8 AM here, I'm going to buy some food, take a nap, and head out in the afternoon to rent a cell phone, find the UPS location to ship my stuff, and maybe locate the super-fancy photo mall where apparently I can get good film for not very much money.