Beijing

While in Asia, we had the good fortune of visiting China, Beijing specifically. It was nothing like the image that I have carried in my mind for so many years. As we left the airport, the highways and city landscape seemed very American. Very much like any other big city. I have always pictured that everything would be crowded and close together and it didn't feel that way at all. It just felt like a big city. The traffic, however, was an entirely different story! We were immediately thrust into the gridlock of millions of people trying to get somewhere quickly and there seemed to be lacking a comprehensive set of rules that everyone, choosing to partake in the driving experience, followed. When someone wanted to change lanes, they simply aimed their car in the direction of the lane they wanted to be in, which many times was the side of our van, and pressed forward. They never looked back for any assurance that you would let them in, they just assumed. Mingled into all of this chaos was quite an assortment of vehicles, including regular cars, small 3-wheeled cars, motorcycles, mopeds, bicycles and even rickshaws.
As we traveled further into the city to our hotel, it became obvious that there were two distinct social classes - "the haves" and "the have-nots". The housing seemed to be predominantly hi-rise apartment buildings, which didn't appear to be particularly well kept. Our hotel was extremely nice, but centered in an area that was not particularly touristy and seemed to reveal more of what everyday life was like. There were always people out on the streets - walking or sitting. I found it interesting that even in the hotel, as nice as it was, you could not drink the water. I would expect this in Mexico but have never heard that this was the case in China.
The thing that I think surprised me the most about China was how hard it was to get around. I have been fortunate enough to travel a great deal and China is by far the most difficult to get around in. We never had a problem leaving the hotel. The staff would always arrange for a cab and write your destination in Chinese on a card that you could hand to the cab driver. It was the return trip that was the problem. Many times empty cabs would simply not stop, especially for women. I'm not sure if it was more of a language barrier issue or their dislike for women or Americans, but in any case it made navigating the city quite a chore.