Beijing, China

Guest Bloggers: the Koreys

Yes folks, Beijing has a pollution problem! How they're going to fix their air quality by next year for the Olympics is the 64 thousand dollar question. When we arrived in Beijing by train on Tuesday morning it was raining. And of course, rain cleans the air so our first impression was that the air seemed pretty good. What's the big deal! The next day was sunny and breezy, so no traces of pollution. By the end of the week, though, the dirty air came back with a vengeance. Just imagine living in a London fog made up of chemical and dust emissions. We may see the first Olympic marathon run with gas masks and oxygen bottles strapped to the runners' backs.

If Shanghai is like NYC and Xi'an, Cleveland, Beijing is a cross between Wash DC and Toronto. It's a beautiful world capital with tall buildings just about everywhere, either completed or under construction. Obviously, there is alot of money pouring into Beijing either from Chinese or foreign sources. And, it spreads out in all directions. It has traffic that rivals or surpasses any city in the world, with taxi drivers all trained at a demolition derby school. Riding in a Beijng taxi is like going down Disney's Magic Moutain ride. It's playing chicken on wheels. The good news is that we survived to tell the story!

On day 2, we went to the Forbidden City where the emperors and their lady friends(concubines) numbering at about 1,000, spent their time living and doing the obvious. The amazing thing is that some of these emperors lived well into their 70's. Talk about stamina! Our impression from the guide is that emperors did a little bit of affairs of state and alot of experiments with population enhancement. Now you know how China got to a billion people.

Next to Tianamenn Square (yes, the infamous stare down the tank place) which is bounded by the Great Hall of the Peoples (China's Parliament), the China History Museum and the final resting place of Chairman Mao. Huge place, can hold a million people. Speaking of Mao, did you know that most Chinese women wear an article of clothing in his honor....yes, the somewhat hidden and trendy Mao Tse Thong! Did you also know that Mao's theme song was the ever popular (have to be at least 50 to remember this one) Papa U Mao, Mao. And finally, the name of Mao's final resting place is the, you guessed it, Maoseleum. We did the Mao walkby. Either he's had a great pickling job or a good coat of wax.

Day 3 had us at the Great Wall of China. And great it is! An engineering marvel probably financed by a bunch of cardiologists. The faint of aerobic fitness need not apply. Hauling up and down the stone walkways is more than enough to get your heart pumping and your hamstrings soar. Quite impressive though! Also, visited the Emperor Mings Tomb which wasn't all that interesting, kind of a dead spot in the day in more than one way.The closer for the day was a real hoot; we went to a massage school of sorts to get our feet massaged and our palms read. The foot soaking and massages were quite welcomed at the end of a long day. However, the topper was the palm reading. Palm reading is the ability to evaluate your health by inspecting various parts of your hand. We were joined by a group of so called "Tibetan doctors" who were straight from central casting. Charlatan and scam come to mind. All four of us had our palms examined and here's the results without exageration. Dad Korey had thick blood and a hot liver, Mom Korey had a weak kidney, Erin had digestive system problems (which by the way we've always known) and get this, Geoff had sexual function problems. However, both Geoff and Erin assured us that that wasn't the case. For all of our maladies, the Tibetan doctors were more than happy to write a presription and sell us the remedy. No sales that day!

Our final day was Mom Korey's 60th b'day which we duly celebrated by going to a Chinese restaurant for Peking Duck and to a presentation of Chinese acrobatics which was amazing, and, something that you definitely should not do at home. Never thought the human body could be gotten into such varied and imaginative positions.

One last Chinese to English translation puzzle......if you walked into a Chinese bathroom and saw a sign on the wall that said: Caution..Landslide.... what do you think that means? If you thought that meant that the floor was slippery, you're a better man or woman than me Charlie Brown.

A very enjoyable, ineteresting and educational 2 weeks! However, it's great to be sleeping in our own bed and living in a community of non existent traffic!