Beijing weekend

Beijing, initial impressions:

The trip to Beijing was at best, interesting..... the place is newly developed and highways and new airport are vast and expansive, but efficiency is at a minimum.... (reminded me a little of Jeddah/Riyadh in the ‘70s) …. running around town is probably more efficient via subway..... the place is much like Winnipeg or Ottawa, large expanses..... but people are rather rude, and crude, however nowadays the restaurants are being trained in finesse, resulting in overly sympathetic service......

Did the great wall at mu tian yu, reportedly 90 min. out of town, but took twice as long... and that is symptomatic of the taxi services, and highway conditions, and this was a private car for the day.... si ma tai, which is still more spectacular and supposed to be 2.5 hrs would probably be like 3.5 as it is reportedly near hebei....; the 6 circle roads around Beijing define the city..... with a 1.25 hour minimum, due to traffic congestion, to get beyond the 6th ring or outer circle...... 1/2 hour if low traffic.... you get the picture......

The duck and Beijing food places my friend recommended were great, easy to find, like most restaurants anywhere else in the world, (rmb200pp), they also ask for feedback, especially if you are chinese speaking. But most people are done with the evening and restaurants closed by 10pm…. like Winnipeg....lol.... The ones I went with some other hong kong friends were all in hutongs... which are neat, but dumpy and at half the price (rmb100 pp...) probably not worth the hassle of trying to find them with taxis or scooters, who are 'uncooperative' at the best of times...... and dirty by western standards. (When I am afraid to ask for ice, I would say it is dirty.)

People are just generally clueless and not ready for the quick development of the city and taxi drivers can range from chatty and entrepreneurial, to basically, 'tell me where u want me to go and what to do... communist era mentality.' ... so its a crap shoot. But they are a relatively cheap way to get around. The subway is rmb2 any distance... like Ottawa bus service....lol.....

Walked down some hutongs and shopping streets, like liu li chang street..... third world alive....neat stores in refurbished buildings built for the tourists; Forbidden City..... pushy, crowded and probably not worth it...; the king's brother's residence.... much prettier and better, especially if u go early......; tien an men, drive by at evening flag ceremony.... pretty campy.... (just the front side/yard of Forbidden City).

Food in general in Beijing is uninteresting to boring... 'dumplings dumplings everywhere, but not a tasty one to eat'..... especially the street food (rmb 30pp), which we walked into this restaurant serving dumplings, cha chang mein and other local specialties.... all kind of rubbish, dough based, like buns, noodles, rolls, etc.. (the dough tastes consistently good, but the fillings and sauces need significant work... basically it is a flour based subsidence, ........ should have tried to eat at the Dong an men market 'eating/food' street where they had seahorses, scorpions, starfish, worms, grasshoppers, and other strange yakitories....... Also tried a Chinese hamburger, sauced minced pork, in a hamburger bun, in a plastic bag… you’ll figure out why they have a plaster bag…..lol…..

And one needs to have a guide or be able to read chinese to get the full value of anything, as it is a joke translating between hongkong cantonese, beijing mandarin, hongkong/taiwan mandarin and english...... typical response from a taxi driver.... 'you guys from HK are way too stressed out' is like the pot calling the kettle black......lol....."