Assorted Ravings of the Slightly-Weird

Scrabby in Beijing

It's an unbelievably lovely day in Beijing. The sun is shining, there's practically no smog and it's not too warm.

The only thing to gripe about is the traffic - the state of Beijing's roads leaves much to be desired. Last night, our ride from the airport which, at 11 at night, should not have taken more than half an hour, took more than 2x that; most of the journey was spent bumping along backroads with no lights and multiple potholes. Good thing we had a fairly late start today, so I was able to get some much-needed sleep, after waking up at 6am yesterday.

Everytime I come to Beijing, the scale just astounds me. If it's impressive now, imagine how it would have been during the imperial times with willow trees lining the broad streets leading to the palatial estates.

By happenstance, we chanced upon the flag-lowering ceremony at Tiananmen Square. My colleague had wanted to see the square, so after our meetings we headed over just before sunset. Turns out, that's when the daily flag-lowering ceremony takes place, so we were fairly lucky to witness it. It's quite an impressive sight when the soldiers march out from the Forbidden City, the traffic on what could possibly be the widest road in the world comes to a halt, and there's hundreds of spectators standing at attention watching the ceremony. Even the cleaners stand at attention.

Tomorrow it's another day of meetings, followed by a late night flight to Shanghai. I much prefer Beijing to Shanghai; Beijing is the grand old dame as opposed to Shanghai being the brash young upstart. Life here in Beijing seems to move at a more measured, stately pace, as compared to the hustle and bustle of Shanghai. Plus, the streets are much wider here so it gives one the impression of wide-open space, versus the urban jungle that is Shanghai.

Okie dokie, dinner time. Oh, before I forget, my phone seems to have decided to renege on its vow of silence. This morning it actually made some noise. Maybe, as my sister says, it's because it was made in China? Whatever it is, I'm glad there's a ringtone again. Yay!

Posted by scrabbyfoo at September 6, 2006 07:38 PM