First impressions of Beijing

[murrayspeaks]

Hi, I am interested to hear what impression you gained entering Beijing for the first time as a foreigner? Thanks

[Demonic_Duck]

Huge, crowded, vibrant, noisy, smelly, impossible to get bored.

[imron]

What have I done

[imron]

Also - wow, I'm illiterate

[stapler]

Why is every old, young, man, woman, child, grandpa spitting and defecating on every inch of vacant space. Why does no one follow road rules? Why won't cars let me cross the road? Why is everyone yelling? Why is everyone so angry? God I need to get out of here.

[traunk]

Everything everyone above said plus...

 

 

The car horns keep going off, are drivers using them for Morse code or something?

 

I must be in heaven, there is a BBQ restaurant open at 2am!

 

Why will no one accept my credit card! 

 

 

I blogged about my first morning, about a week ago.

[murrayspeaks]

Thank you all, spitting I had heard about but defecating?

[Demonic_Duck]

Kids, outside, and it's not all that common.

[iand]

A Chinese explained it to me, he, like many, puts open-back pants on his toddler, because a diaper causes the poop to give the child a rash.

[Alex_Hart]

"What's that burnt smell?"

"I think this taxi driver wants to kill me... Also, this is definitely the wrong way..."

"25 RMB for a bowl of noodles!? It was 7 RMB in Chengdu, you thief!"

"Is that a big box of human hair?"

"Why is everyone playing cards? Where did the 麻将 go?"

"Holy *!@$@!%*#@, these dumplings are amazing"

"What do you mean you've lived here for 4 years and don't speak any Chinese!?"

[baihua]

Pollution is bad. I mean can't see clearly the tops of tall buildings kind of bad. You got the occassional funny look and stare. Outside of the touristy bits, you could surmise you were the only foreigner. Random big brother style political slogans adourning public places. There seemed an odd contrast between really old style socialist aesthetics on one hand and really tacky western consumer driven ones on the other. Queues being horrible. Traffic being 'interesting'. Food everywhere, in places you'd least expect. Pubs almost nowhere to be found. Spitting. And, unfortunately, toilets....

 

But I would go back in a heart-beat but that is probably another thread

 

ETA The most Chinese thing I recall seeing on my recent visit was an old man in a mao suit sat at the front of a bus, who opened the bus window just so he could spit out of it. It makes me chuckle even now...

[889]

"Where are all the 大字报?"

[Simon_CH]

My first impression of Beijing was "wow, this place is ugly". It took me a while to appreciate the nicer sides of it. 

[StChris]

This post brought back memories on this quiet Sunday.

 

I first visited Beijing the year before the Olympics. I had been hopping on and off trains along the trans-Mongolian railroad from Moscow. The simplest route to Beijing was to take the direct train from Ulan Bator, but I also heard from other travelers at the hostel that there was a cheaper option of getting a 3rd class train to the Mongolian-Chinese border and then taking a bus to Beijing. Being the cheap and adventurous backpacker that I was (or at least aspired to be), I decided to save the 50 or so RMB and chose the 2nd option. 

 

As you can imagine, the border was an unorganised mess of people and vehicles and I was having trouble finding the bus. Luckily an SUV pulled over and the young driver asked (in very broken English) if I wanted to go to Beijing. Although the price he asked was a little more expensive than the bus, it was a big comfortable SUV and there were two cute Chinese girls in the back, so I thought why not. After half an hour of unexplained driving round and round the border area, the driver dropped me off in front of the bus and gave my money to the driver (pocketing the difference himself). It looked like I was taking the bus after all. I never quite understood why someone who had enough money to be driving an expensive SUV felt the need to do a little touting work on the side.

 

The bus eventually got stuck in the biggest traffic jam I had ever seen in my life. It seemed like there were 20 lanes of traffic (probably an exaggeration of memory). It was moving so slowly that everyone eventually gave up, turned their engines off, and everyone on the bus (including the driver) went to sleep. After I don't know how long I was woken by the sound of hundreds of car engines simultaneously revving up - we were finally on the move again. By the time the bus stopped in Beijing it was already the middle of the night. I had know idea whereabouts in Beijing I was and absolutely no one spoke a word of English. Through the foggy night I gravitated towards the only familiar sign in an alien world - the big yellow M of a McDonalds. There I managed to get through half of my first "Chinese" meal before passing out on the table. 

 

It must have been around 5:30am when I woke up. I made my way to the (now open) Metro station and got the train to Tiananmen Square, where I knew a bunch of cheap hostels were located. I remember arriving at that huge square just as the sun was rising. I still have very strong memories of making my way through the maze of old dilapidated hutongs just to the south (?) looking for a place to stay - the steam coming from the bun baskets and the sound of the old men in Mao suits hocking and spitting on their morning walk (at least I thought the clothes they were wearing was very "Chinese/commie-esque" at the time, they might not have actually been Mao suits). I eventually checked into an old courtyard house which had been converted into a hostel. It was cold, dusty, and had no hot water - and I absolutely loved it! Staying in an old courtyard house situated in an old hutong just a stones throw away from Tiananmen must have fulfilled all of my young orientalist fantasies.

 

The memory of the next week is a blur of tourist sights, bars and great Chinese food (which was completely different from the Chinese food that I was used to in the UK). I distinctly remember that there were two westerners living at the hostel who were studying Chinese. I remember being completely amazed that they were able to order food in Chinese when we all went out together. As stupid as it may sound (especially to the people on this website), it had literally never crossed my mind that a white person could go to China and study Chinese. It would be another couple of years before I started studying Chinese myself, but the seed for that idea was almost certainly planted then.

 

To be honest, I wasn't particularly looking forward to visiting China - it just so happened to be situated in between two places that I did really want to see  (Siberia/Mongolia and the Himalayas). Staying in a massive megapolis like Beijing after having spent the past couple of weeks travelling around Mongolia was a real shock to the system. But man, what a fascinating place! I guess you could say that China and I have 缘分. 

[StChris]

Despite loving Beijing, I eventually ended up studying in Harbin. For those that have experience of living in both a smaller city and the capital, would you say that spending an extended period in Beijing is essential if you really want to understand China?

[murrayspeaks]

Thanks good reply

[Flickserve]

Beijing has a modern airport.

Nobody spits in the airport.

There sure are plenty of toilets around.

The air is hazy and plenty of people wear masks.

Queuing is actually quite orderly - ok there are queue jumpers but I have seen that in other countries.

Check food products sell by date carefully when buying.

People can understand the little mandarin that I learnt!

The subway system is pretty efficient and has toilets.

Trees have lime painted on their bases.

[murrayspeaks]

Why are the trees painted thus?

[onebir]

Other things:

- The trees on the airport expressway are(/were) grey with dust/pollution.

- Many roads are huge (by European city standards) & pedestrians cross using bridges/tunnels (which often have small vendors)

- Some areas only have public toilets (no plumbing in old hutongs) - numerous & locatable by smell in hot weather.

- First time i smelt smelly doufu frying (cooked by a street vendor) I was looking around for the public toilet before linking the smell to the wok with grey dofu in it...

 

Watch 'Beijing Bicycle' for some hutong scenes.

[Flickserve]

Why are the trees painted thus?

To protect against some insects.

Many of the trees lining the streets are Plane trees which reminded me of the streets in London.