Well, thankfully, it was free alcohol night at the bar last night, so I've been working through a weird hangover funk all day!
The Beijing leg of my trip is over with, and I'm now in Tianjin (took a 180+ mph train - took about 30 minutes to get here from there). China is great, and it set in at the airport that I'm in a foreign country - after getting through customs (lightning fast, no problem) I had to get a taxi. The woman operating the taxi queue stared right at me and asked me something in Chinese, and I had no idea what it was. that's when I realized I was in a foreign country. Having translators with me is a tremendous asset. Justin and his girlfriend met Keith (college buddy) and I at the airport.
Having Sophia (a native speaker) and Justin (learning Chinese and fluent enough) around makes all the difference in the world, and has allowed us to do all sorts of things around Beijing. When I say "us," I'm referring to our traveling group -- my friend Keith, Justin's brother John, Justin's mother Rosemary, and a couple of Justin's local friends (Robert and Raymond). Things we've done included visiting The Great Wall (really big, very tiring to walk), The Forbidden City, and Tiananmen Square.
The culture is wonderful and has a childlike curiosity about it. In my travel guides, I read a few things about staring being very common, and it's somewhat true although it happens maybe once or twice a day, not all the time everywhere like I had expected. I'm just settling down now and getting ready for bed -- this trip is very busy. I'd like to write more, but even getting this far has been an uphill battle. Time for bed.
-Ian
P.S., no joke about the internet thing here! Writing to my blog is practically impossible - I don't get AT&T coverage here, and Chinese government blocks everything. More later, promise!
