18 Million People, 6 Million Cars

Beijing

Remember those pictures of Beijing back in the good old Mao days when the people
had no cars and rode bicycles everywhere? Well, just like the Mao uniform of dress, the
bikes are gone, replaced by cars. Shiny, new cars. Six million shiny, new cars within the
city limits on roads designed for three million bicycles.

Beijing is crowded, noisy and on the move. No one is standing still save for the military
cadets who average about 5'6" and weigh maybe 120 lbs and are guarding random
sites around town. To say that the infrastructure is lacking is truly stating the obvious.
And if it hadn't been for the Beijing Olympics, there would be no signage other than
Chinese characters. All the road signs, tourist sites, stores, restaurants, etc are
identified w/ Chinese characters with English translation below. "Rush hour" seems
to be 24/7. As Kevin says, to the drivers pedestrians are an inconvenience and traffic
lights merely a suggestion. The air pollution is directly related to the cars on the road.
No clunkers, either. Almost every car maker has manufacturing plants in China. If you
buy a car made in China, they are relatively inexpensive. The favorites seem to be VW
sedans, Toyotas, BMW, etc. If you've just gotta have that Mini Cooper or Porsche or
any other foreign-made card, the duty is at least 100%. Gas is approximately $5 US
per gallon. The Chinese currency, the Yuan, is now floating against the dollar and is
currently 6.33 yuan to the dollar. Foreign currency can be changed into yuans at any
hotel or bank w/ no service charge.

A little cultural aside from Kevin: Beijing has a huge (remember, everything is huge in
Beijing) subway and bus system. The fare is 1 yuan, or 15 to 20 cents. Kevin told us
that the system is, needless to say, greatly subsidized by the government. "Remember,
China is a communist country and image is everything." Twenty cents a ride certainly
sounds better to the world than the two, three or more dollars per ride anywhere else in
the world.

Today we visited Tienaman Square. (The English spelling of Chinese cities,
monuments, parks, etc is quite varied just like Kadafy.) As luck would have it, The SCO,
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, is in town, meeting at the People's Hall,
smack in the middle of the (do I really need to add, HUGE) square. China, Russian and
several of the ....stan countries make up the SCO, so w/ Putin et all in the Square, the
people are not. It was completely blocked off, so our visit to TS consisted of staring at it
from across the six lane street (also blocked off). It sort of looks like the fairgrounds
when the fair is gone. Acres of cement that can hold one million people, although Kevin
says that 300,000 is more comfortable and manageable. He also told us that it is the goal of every Chinese to make the pilgrimage to TS and return home w/ a photo to mark
the occasion. TS is considered the birthplace of communist China. It is where Mao
announced it, thus it is so. Mao's face is on all the Chinese money (Taiwanese money
features Sun Yat Sen. One is warned to check your change for Mao, not Sun Yat Sen.
The Taiwanese money is real, but only on Taiwan.) and, ironically, on a huge portrait at
the entrance to the Forbidden Palace. OMG, it took us three hours to walk through the
palace. It's not like Catherine's Palace or Versailles or Buckingham Palace...no art or
furnishings or pretties, just a set of concentric squares with acres of courtyard between
each ring, that you keep walking through until you hit ground zero where the emperor
slept. Lots of feng shua (sp?) couple w/ paranoia involved. A huge moat was dug
around the whole place. There are no trees inside the Palace grounds because the
emperor did not want his enemies to hide in the trees and kill him w/ a well place arrow
or knife. The courtyard surrounding the inner sanctum is paved w/ 15 or 16 layers of
paving stones so his enemies couldn't tunnel in. Some of the buildings were restored for
the Olympics (like Atlanta and every other host city, anything that will show to visitors in
town for the Games is buffed and polished. Image, remember, image.) and the goal is
to finish the restoration by 2020. There are 9,999 rooms throughout the complex, so
this is no easy task. Rent The Last Emperor to get an idea of the scale of the place.
Average daily attendance is 35-40,000, with a record number 150,000 during one
festival or another. You hear countless different languages being spoken, but like TS,
it's a must-do for Chinese. The Chinese do not modulate their voices. They tend to
speak loudly and with great abandon. The din is incredible. I shudder to think what the
decibel level is.

We went from crowds of thousands to one of the hutongs, an ancient city enclave with
narrow streets and pedicabs. We pedicabbed to a local market, bought 10 yuan each of
vegetables and then went to have lunch in the house of a Beijing citizen. Tiny place with
tinier kitchen but wonderful food, which translates to nothing that meowed or barked
yesterday! Two things we've noticed: tiny plates (bread plate size) and cocktail napkins
instead of even one of those flimsy lunch-size things. We ate some exotic vegetables,
lotus root (delicious), pork, potatoes and rice. Beverages of choice seem to be water
(bottled), Coke (regular, none of that Diet stuff), Sprite or beer. Our hostess was quite
charming. She was a spinster lady of a certain age whose twenty-something year old
niece was carrying on the family tradition of painting (with watercolors) the inside of
small, crystal snuff bottles. Need I add, available for purchase?

Back to our bus (twenty people per regular sized bus---there's that image again. The
regular citizenry may jam the busses, but the tourists ride around in regal splendor.) and
then through stop and go traffic for a good hour to the hotel. The federales had blocked
of one lane of every road and highway for the exclusive use of the SCO attendees.

Szechuan restaurant for dinner. Once again, at least ten dishes, all delicious and most
VERY spicy. One guy on the trip doesn't really like Chinese food so is eating a lot of
rice. He looks longingly out the window every time we pass a McDonalds or KFC. What
was he expecting? Grits and greens? We learned that he and his wife live about two
miles from us in Kennesaw.

Now it's time to suit up for the Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace and then Peking
Duck at the Hepingmen Quan Jade Restaurant where Mao and Nixon dined together.
Jim and I are passing on the "rare opportunity" to attend the Peking Opera tonight. I
seem to remember cacophonic wailing on the Ed Sullivan Show. A quiet night at the
luxe Shangri La China World Towers sounds much more appealing.