Beijing Bada Bing!

We knew Beijing was a highly modern capital city and we have visited the metropolis of Shanghai before, but nothing prepared us for how glitzy and high tech it was going to be! The office blocks and shopping centres are vast; not just tall, but wide, squatting there like fat frogs in the smog. The smog encompasses everything and we haven’t seen sun or sky in the three days we have been here. It makes all the lights and LEDs look even more Blade Runner-esque. The Apple shop is the largest one I have been in and you could quite easily be wandering around London with all brand names and high end consumables being hoovered up, not by expats, but by the nouveau riche locals. There is not a picture of Mao in sight, unless you count ‘ironic’ designer images on t-shirts costing nearly £50 each.

The distances involved are also vast and we have several times set off on a walk somewhere only to give up and pile into a taxi after half an hours walk moves us mere milimetres on the map. So, it’s not much of a city to walk around, but the subway is cheap and extensive, taxis plentiful and there are also small autorickshaws built on to the chassis of electric motorscooters. One of these took all four of us home the other night!

For all it’s modernity and identikit western shops, we still feel that Beijing has it’s own character and are falling for it’s ugly, smoggy charms. The labyrinthine Hutongs of courtyards and houses everywhere you turn, means that a large percentage of the population live in communities right in the middle of the city. They are very much alive, as people walk dogs, go out for a game of cards or some food, and just generally have a nose and natter with their neighbours. We love the Hutongs which come into their own at night as red lanterns are lit and there is no mistaking that you are well and truly in China!