being in Beijing

Flying to Beijing shouldn't have been very exciting but ended up almost being too much so: my dad's plane ticket had the wrong passport number so he had to go try to get that fixed while my mom and I braved check-in/security (on an interesting side-note: at the beginning of security, there is a huge box where you dump your lighters, and when you arrive at your destination and you pass by security, you can pick up a different one. A clever idea, even if it does promote smoking). Luckily everything worked out fine, and my dad arrived just in time to board the bus--the bus that took us to our plane. It was interesting to take a bus out onto the runway, get off along with a mass of Chinese people, and crowd and shove onto the stairs up to a giant aircraft. The flight itself was notable in a few ways--primarily that, on an hour and a half flight, they served a meal. A complete meal too. Chinese airlines clearly haven't gotten with the American airline program of charging passengers for everything possible. Lunch included a chicken and rice bowl, a questionable bamboo shoot/peanut/egg salad, even more questionable 'dried radishes' (?!?!), and some watermelon. Also, to clean up, we each got a "wet turban." I think the words they were looking for were "moist toilette," but what do I know.

Our trip from the airport to the hotel was also exciting, because we had a very, very angry cab driver. It was in fact quite hilarious (I can say that now that I'm safely out of his cab...at the time I was slightly more concerned, though I reminded myself that crashing the car wouldn't really prove his point very well and I hoped he would recognize that). He grumbled to himself, complained loudly, took a little card and struck it against the steering wheel in agitation, and straddled two lanes for most of the time--though the last part is hardly unusual. The driving in China is somewhat uncouth: if you want to change lanes, you just force your way in, forming makeshift new lanes between lanes if the person (when the person) doesn't let you in.

We ended up not leaving our hotel until our dinner excursion, spending our time roughly like this:

But if anything can break through the jet lag-exhaustion-haze and provide motivation for me, it's the promise of a good meal. Finding the restaurant was rather complicated, involving the subway, asking directions multiple times, being misled multiple times, consulting our map multiple times, walking for a while trying to navigate the streets of Beijing, and then wandering through a park--again being misdirected multiple times--until we finally stumbled upon the restaurant, which ended up being well worth the journey, and I would even say it is my favorite thus far!

It's funny to be in Beijing because my dad dislikes it so. Not that there's anything particularly wrong with Beijing, just that Shanghai is his city, and if you have any knowledge of the two competing cities, you know that you can only have allegiance for one or the other. Everyone in Shanghai looks with scorn at Beijing, and everyone in Beijing looks with scorn at Shanghai. My mom and I find it vastly amusing to talk up Beijing whenever we have a chance, and tell my dad how much better Beijing is.Truly, I don't feel I've gotten enough impression of either to make a definite decision, not to mention the fact that I would feel that I was betraying my father if I said Beijing was better. Beijing is hotter (it was 104 degrees today) but not as humid. And it's clear! I saw the sun for the first time since my arrival in China, and it is quite a relief (California has spoiled me, what can I say?). Everything is so bright and there is no oppressive sky and I practically hear "I can see clearly now the rain has gone" echoing in my ear.