First Days in Beijing

Finishing up my 4th whole day in Beijing, I must say it's tiring. I've gotten much *better* at navigating around without language. I am now very good at taking the subway. Taking it, however, is the easy part. Knowing which way to go without being able to read signs or ask for directions to your destination is the difficult part. Suffice to say, my feet have made up for a lot of this and they are sore.

I can also take taxis if I have the address written in Chinese (available for some things in the guide book) or if I can figure out where it is and mark it on the Chinese character/Chinese English letter map I acquired from a retired engineer who was seeking out English-speaking tourists to practice his volunteer skills for Beijing 2008. So far I have gotten to the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City in the way of historical/cultural sites and a host of lesser-known destinations including a lake with evening entertainment, an insane knock-off market, random alleys that I have no idea where they are located and an in-progress art compound.

You can check out all of the pictures on smugmug.com (click "my pictures" link) While you can probably see similar pictures of the great historic sites in any guide book, I would especially recommend the pictures taken at 798, the art compound. Most of the art in the galleries (with a few exceptions) was fairly bland. The "impromptu" graffiti art throughout the alleys was most exciting. Here is a little flavor of what you'll see if you have time to look at the pictures.