My first few days in China

The flight over here was a blur for me. I stayed up until .... I don't remember, but it was too late the night before my flight, so in a daze, I finished packing up last minute thing and then headed to the airport. I waited in line for too long, went through security at a surprisingly fast pace and then promptly took a nap when I got to my gate. Vancouver airport was the same as last time, the workers there seemed to angry for no reason at all. The customs lady kept insisting I tell her how long my friends had lived in China even though I told her they were born in China, yeah, like I know all of my friends exact ages. I still hate the Vancouver airport. The Beijing airport is still the same. They are building some new concourses, invariably for the 2008 Olympics. This probably isn't true, but it seems like they are building a lot of new things for the Olympics. Another change is that most of the taxis are new Hyuandai Elantras with a two tone paint job, yellow and another color (I have seen brown, blue, green and red). They are all 2 kuai now also. I really miss my 1.2 kuai taxis already.

I have spent the first few days just walking around and seeing my old friends. The first day I was here I spent time with Liu Yu. We went to Starbucks (I guess I started to miss Seattle fast) and watched Ice Age 2. It was subtitled and not dubbed, so I was able to get the funny jokes rather than having them lost in bad translations. The second day I saw Li Rong and we had some really good Gelato at a place in Sanlitun. I forget the name now, but if you are in Sanlitun it is hard to miss the gelato place. That night I saw Kitty and we had dinner in Sanlitun and then we walked back to my place. When we were walking back to my hotel I started to realize how easy it is for Beijinger's to live in this city and not know there way around. I led the way back and since then I have noticed it was not just her, but lots of people in Beijing don't know where things are. Surprising people working south of Beihai don't know where Houhai is. It is just north of Beihai. It took me five times to find a person who could give me directions and really I didn't need them because if I stayed on the same road and walked north I would have gotten there in 15 minutes.

The real pain in the ass part of this trip has been my cell phone. On the first night I was here I went to Wangfujing, a popular tourist destination for foreigners, to buy a SIM card for the phone my brother let me bring to China. I probably should not have gone there in the first place, but it was close, it was late and I didn't expect them to rip me off. They probably sold me a used SIM card and after they charged it they would not give me my money back. Luckily I bought a cheap number, so I didn't lose too much money. After my phone had problems getting reception the clerk kept insisting that I buy a new cell phone from him. Not wanting to spend more money I told him I would look online to see if there were problems with using my phone in China. I didn't look online, but I went to the cell phone I went to a year and a half ago because I know they are honest and helpful. For some reason I got reception there after turning my phone on and off over and over. I got reception and thought things were fine, so I left. This situation was starting to end up like the situation I had with getting my powerbook connected to the internet before. Clerks seem to not want to deal with any products that they have never seen. At Wangfujing they didn't know what Windows Mobile phones were, but they were selling them at Wudaokou. This makes me wonder whether people pay attention at all to products on the market. I guess this is akin to the problem with salespeople at CompUSA not knowing anything about computers.

Anyways, to make a long story not as long as it could be. I learned a few lessons. Go to Wudaokou to buy your SIM cards, not Wangfujing or even the airport as you might be tempted to do. Buy phone numbers that start with three digits greater than 135. These are a little more expensive, but are better (I bought a 134 number). And, lastly, don't buy a new phone just because they tell you your quad-band GSM phone will not work in China.

Yesterday was the first day I actually went to any tourist attractions. I went to Tianmen and saw some people giving a guard a hard time because they couldn't go into the Mao Memorial Hall. Poor guy had to stand in the sun and have people yell at him because the hall was closed. I also saw some guards holding the purse of what seemed to be a thief. They wouldn't let her go into the square with her purse and she wouldn't go in without. There were photographers in weird poses and locals selling overpriced water, just like the last time I was there. After a quick walkthrough I walked up a small road between the Forbidden city and Beihai. I walked through Beihai park to get to Houhai. Walking through Houhai I watched old men play Mahjong and Dominos.I also got to play a hacky-sack like game with some people who lived in the hutong I was walking through. As I walked by they invited me to play when I had stopped and watched. This is why I like China. Everyone is so welcoming.

Today I might go rock climbing and this evening I will probably get together with a large group of friends and go to a bar or something. This weekend I will probably fly to Chengdu.

Lastly, I wanted to leave you with something I saw on the first day here. After getting a room I walked around the neighborhood to acclimate myself. On the way back I was startled to see a black Dodge Charger with spinners on it, you know, the rims that keep spinning after the car has stopped. So, it is official, bad hip-hop taste has arrived in Beijing in it's worst form. Well, almost worst, I have yet to see someone with grillz.