A Visit to Beijing

aka: Where Ancient and Modern Collide
I'm 2 days into Beijing and I'm marveling at this transformed city. I thought Hong Kong was a chaotic blend of the old and new.. but it has nothing on Beijing.

While here I've visited both the Ancient and the Modern. The Forbidden City and the Great Wall humbled me with their majestic scale and history. But tears welled up in my eyes when I came upon the National Stadium(aka Birds Nest) and all the new history it had made in such a brief amount of time. It is a tremendous site to see up close; it's the 2nd building I have ever seen that has brought tears to my eyes. (The Disney Concert Hall being the First.). Perhaps it seems silly to cry at the site of a building. But visionary architecture can do that, it can soar above just steel girders and right angles to be glorious and full of hopes and dreams.


And one wouldn't think I would find it here, in the Communist Motherland. Where men(and women) spit freely and pick their noses with matching aplomb. But there's the juxtaposition. I fear using the toilet while away from my Ikea-like hotel because squatting is just not in my DNA(is there ever enough Purell??). But it seems this damn city is wired and I can surf the internet wherever I wish. The Great Wall warns against cellphone usage during thunderstorms; and I still find stewed dogmeat on the menu.

I reckon there are some things technology still can't do.....