Welcome to Beijing!

Since Hong Kong is more "special area region" than China, Beijing was my first visit to China! But of course I had to compare everything with Hong Kong.

Weather - not as humid as HK. I mistook the first few days of overcast skies as smog. But then once the rain cleared up, I swear they had gorgeous blue skies! We had so many locals tell us how happy they are with their new skies that they’re willing to keep the “drive on even/odd days” routine going.

Traffic - So people are assigned to even or odd days to drive to keep car pollution down. Jeesh-that was traffic with only half the normal drivers out there? I seriously can’t imagine full blown Beijin traffic. So I thought I would rent a bike here during a few of my free hours, since that seems to be a preferred mode of transportation. Well, a quick walk around the first night and I realized that I wouldn’t survive here on a bike. Cars, bikes, mopeds and people all criss cross each other on the street. Stop lights mean nothing. Pedestrians don’t have the right of way (not sure anyone does) and they all just narrowly avoid hitting each other. Unbelievable. I'm not exaggerating this at all.

People - Eager to help, but not helpful. Everyone wanted to help us with our maps, directions, etc. But their English was generally very poor and found us in a cab heading in the opposite direction of where we wanted. Or found us meeting our tour bus on the wrong side of the hotel.

Food - So I didn't enjoy the food in HK much. Unless a local ordered for us. Or it was from Pret-A-Manger. Well, the Beijing food was even worse. One night's dinner consisted of pig's ears (sliced thin), jelly fish (which I mistakenly ate, thinking it was a noodle of sorts), sketchy chicken, and other questionable meats covered in sauce. When a bread basket would arrive, I chowed down. Carbs be damned!

History - Wow. Some gorgeous temples and amazing history. More on this later...