First impressions of Beijing

I knew ahead of time that China was going to be interesting. My first encounter of this, the most populous country in the world, is it’s capital. Beijing.

Right away I’m confronted with terminal 3 at the airport, easily the biggest structure I’ve ever set foot in. So big, that after waiting an hour to get through customs, I needed to take a subway train to get to the baggage pickup area.

The city is hard to describe for me. Its organized, but it’s hectic. Its urban, but its not organic. Every major street is at least as wide as Las Vegas blvd. We’re talking 8 and 10 lanes wide. This makes pedestrian exploration difficult at times, because they even put up fence barriers along the sidewalks, so to cross a street you may sometimes have to walk half a kilometer in either direction to find either a tunnel or overpass to get across.

Then you’ve got the hutongs, the more traditional neighborhoods that are disappearing fast to make way for these new wide land streets. Within the hutongs the streets are so narrow you can touch both sides with either hand.

The subway system is crazy. Ridiculous. It’s a mosh pit. Pushing and shoving is allowed, and really surprisingly widely accepted. If you’re afraid of a little bit of friendly violence, the subway system isn’t for you.

That’s all for now.