Beijing

I updated the setting that keeps non-members from posting comments. Kind of lame that that's the default. I wouldn't have thought to check. Clearly blogger wants all of you to blog.

So, it seems that as soon as I start to get oriented in Shanghai, it's time to head north to Beijing: a very confusing city. To start with, it's the size of Belgium. A major road can change names 6 or 7 times alongh it's length. Two such segments will only differ in name by 2 letters: Jianguomennei and Jianguomenwai Dajie. Literaly, the road inside or outside a gate that no longer exists. This naming issue foiled my attempts to find a couple of the places I was looking for.

My hotel's on the outskirts, a massive posh tourist hotel in the midst of construction and suburbs. I tried to do the bus / subway combo to get to the center of town this afternoon, but failed dismally. Well, not quite: I did find my way to Tianamen Square (much bigger than I expected) but it took me much longer than I anticipated. I took the bus the wrong way, and ended up in a pretty sketchy neighborhood. Got lots of odd looks while waiting for the return bus at the end of the line. I'm likely going to try again tomorrow, but fortuanately a cab rides only about 3 or 4 US dollars.

I'm still having much trouble finding the Internet cafes. The one's listed in Lonely Planet don't seem to exist anymore. Too much turnover. Just discovered that my hotel's got broadband that I can jack into in my room, though. It's a bit pricey, at 1 Y per minute, topping out at 80 Y for the day. That's really only about 10 bucks, and since I've thrown $5 at T-Mobile for an hours worth of connectivity before, it doesn't seem like such a bad deal.

So, I'm posting this from my room, shortly after eating an absurdly large and ridiculously spicy Sichuan meal. Chicken with green onions, red chiles, peanuts all drenched in chili oil. Amazing stuff. Plus a side of fried dumplings stuffed with pork. Now I'm really full, and really exhausted. I've been up before 6 both mornings here so far. That just has to stop! But I don't expect it will. I'm going to take it a bit slower tomorrow, although Beijing's really got too much to see. My hotel has ESPN, so I think I'm going to stick around here and see if the Sunday night game between St. Louis and SF is on. If not, maybe I'll sleep in. Either way, I think I need to get a 10:30 am or so start on the day. I'm hoping to get to the Summer Palace, the Lama Temple, the Forbidden City the Monument to the People's Heroes and the Mao Zadong Mausoleum tomorrow. I saw most of the stuff around the Forbidden City this evening, but it was all closed. The area was unbelievably packed. I'm not sure how much that is because it's a holiday weekend, and how much it is that this is just a huge city. But it was intense. Streets were shut down to allow for the throngs of padestrians. I couldn't even get to the Peking Duck place I was looking to eat at, and by then I was so worn I decided to make my way towards the Sichuan place instead. That got me out of the crowds, anyway, and the food was fantastic (although 3 hours after eating it, I'm still sweating).

Since I've got this connection in my room, I should be able to get caught up on photo posting tomorrow. I'm just too tired right now.