Day one

So it appears that the great firewall doesnt mind our google blog, but two days before we left America, there was a big earthquake off the coast of Taiwan. It damaged the communications cable on the sea floor and so our connection with any western website that does not house servers in Asia is pitiful. Imagine a modem connection before the advent of the 56k.

The jet lag is turning out not to be such an immediate affliction as a battle of attrition. Our bodies still have not accepted the change in schedule weve imposed on them and many wake up at 6am against their own will.

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Immediate first observations:

Beijing is unfathomably massive in width and breadth.

The district Beijing Normal University is in and the areas to the Northwest we explored yesterday feel no more crowded really than a Western city.

The people of Beijing are shockingly well dressed. There are very distinctive Chinese fashions and they are very new and fresh and contemporary. They are not backwards in dress at all.

The area we saw yesterday is riddled with small commercial storefronts. They are little more than closets jammed with new merchandise with little room to manuever. The male shopkeepers of these tiny shoe and clothing stores pay little attention to their customers. I visited 6 or 7 of them yesterday and I received little more than a head nod from the male vendor. They were all too busy intently focused on the various Korean MMORPGs they were playing.

We have yet to see another American. We have yet to find on the street any of the hundreds of millions of Chinese that know any English. We stick out like a sore thumb but the Chinese are very friendly. As we wandered yesterday looking for one of the clothing markets on Emilys list (to no avail), more than a few times, a Chinese would see us and smile and yell "HALLO!" to us from inappropriate distances.

My Chinese has come a long way in 1 year but is still quite depressingly rudimentary. I can communicate with significant success with locals on the street when I initiate the conversation. However, many times, as soon as they hear that I can speak Mandarin with any proficiency they launch into casual responses of which I can rarely make more than guestimations on meaning.

Visually Beijing as an American is confusing. Many times I was hit with waves of disbelief as to my surroundings. A huge portion of city life walking around the streets seems identical to that in America. Every now and then though, you come upon a sight so alien that It makes your head spin and question the validity of your senses. I will e

To anyone that has spent any time in a major American Chinatown, the smell of Beijing is not overly surprising. The smog and pollution is disconcerting, but the sight of seeing people out doing tai chi in the snow at 7 am and the marvel of the construction products and the atmosphere is incredible.

Another wonder is the power of American money. Many daily needs and indulgences are all but free. In conversion: 20 cents for a subway ride. 1 dollar for a bottle of good whisky. 2 dollars for a good large meal. 3 dollars for a cross town taxi. 15 dollars for a fashionable sweater. 20 dollars for a fashionable jacket.

we are leaving to go look for a bakery. PEACE

-Winkler