15 April 2018
Pollen count
Wandering around Wangfujing on no sleep
I am suffering from extreme tiredness so none of this will make sense.
Beijing seems much nicer than when I was last here in 2013. I think on that occasion I was actually sick and didnt go too far around the city itself, but I also think they have really modernized dramatically since I was last here. It could also be the time of year, because the blossoms on all the trees are generating a huge amount of pollen. At first I thought I was back in Taiwan and simpletons were burning fake money to appease the volcano gods, but no its actually pollen. I had a brief sneezing fit to prove it, despite not really suffering from hayfever.
Due to extreme tiredness, I have already walked 25km today, after catching the excellent train into the city, I just decided to walk an hour dragging my cases to my hotel rather than transfer to the subway, because I assumed I would not be able to check in. However they let me check in at 10:30AM! A great bonus, I told the check in girl using my fluent mandarin that she would be blessed by a thousand cuts and ascend to her rightful place alongside the gods soon!
My room is huge and plush, I have taken photos, and it is called about 9 different things, but generally Beijing Prime Hotel Wangfujing will help you find it on a map.
After spending about an hour in the shower rinsing my mouth with the badly contaminated lead water, I decided sleeping was idiotic, and set out for a walk again, down Wangfujing Street - the main shopping street. This street is full of people that try to scam westerners, I got 3, but now I speak Chinese and its a lot of fun. I told the first one who wanted to take me for tea 'I already got robbed today, I have no money for food, please help me!', I told the second one who wanted to take me to see the iPhone 11 that I work in the central government as a consultant and finally, the last guy who wanted me to go to a free calligraphy lesson I simply told that I am an expert in calligraphy from all around the world!
It is also hot, I went out in shorts and a t-shirt and looked at all the people looking at me like I am in idiot while they were rugged up in their winter coats. It was 24C, thats cold enough to catch your death for many a Chinese person, the only solution - drink more hot water.
Now I am waiting for it to be late enough to go out and get some dinner, it will get cold at night, so I will probably not wear shorts to dinner, I dont want anyone offering me an emergency pair of pants out of sympathy.
I came up out of the train station at Dongzhimen and this is the site that greeted me. Modern, blue, clean, leafy and pollen-y Beijing.
Nearly all the cars are electric these days, the traffic is very quiet.
Here is my hotel room. The internet works great, the bathroom is huge and has a separate full bath and shower, theres not too much crazy stuff littered around the place, although they have provided a full size windows xp pc.
If you live in Australia you are familiar with obikes and their competitors, if you live in the rest of the world you have seen the news stories about seas of dockless bikes abandoned across China. Here are the yellow companies bikes, heaps of them, but they are all lined up nicely and everyone seems to actually use them. More on this soon....
This is Wangujing pedestrian street. It is wide and has been rebuilt since I was last here. The trees are great, but have not got all their leaves yet.
To celebrate the upcoming Beijing winter Olympics in 2022, there is a display of water buffalo statues. Yes, when I think skiing and luge, I think of water buffalos.
This is where I had a sneezing fit along with everyone else. I have never really noticed actual pollen in the air before.
Electric cars are the norm. Beijing even hosts a round of the formula-e all electric racing series. I think this is an actual car, not a mock up, in side a car dealer inside a food court inside a mall inside a subway station.
The view from the other end of Wangfujing street. Actually its not the very start, there are big shed like structures at the very start where I think another new subway line is being constructed. Only this time they have not just dug a huge hole that consumes everything during construction, they have put up nice covering sheds to shield everyone from noise and dust.
These guys are getting pretty close to the wires while they glue a few bricks half back together. Actually there really was not too much dodgy work going on at all that I noticed. Do not worry, I will be heading out of tier one cities to places where sink holes consume entire towns soon.
Pineapple rice.
Here is the competing orange brand of dockless bicycles. Now there definitely seems to be some form of organisation going on, they seem to have turf assigned to them. But of course people that rent them can just leave them anywhere, and do... yet its not total chaos, read on.
I walked back to my hotel through this linear park. There are actually lots of them, all very well maintained, all full of people taking photos of blossoms while sneezing.
There are public toilets everywhere, and they all have attendants and are all clean. Seriously every couple of hundred metres. I visited 3 and they were all immaculate. This information is also here to pre-empt comments.
My hotel is quite near the national art gallery, which I have never visited. I doubt I will get time on this trip, so here is a shot of the outside.
I am already overusing the words seem and quite, but I am so far succeeding in not saying whilst, which isnt even really a word!
And here is a guy employed by yellow bike company organising the bikes. There are heaps of these guys, anytime someone leaves a bike they are there minutes later to move it back into position. Is this sustainable? In Australia this would be a $30 an hour job at least.
And finally, here is my hotel, from the outside. It is large and being re-skinned to attain increased modernness (according to a letter in my room).