Beijing Days One and Two

Hello from China! After spending Thursday night in Bangkok and heading early to the airport, I took a 4.5 hour flight to Beijing. Flying in to the airport, you start to get a feel for just how polluted the air is here. Thai Airways has a screen that displays the plane's elevation, and I could not see anything on the ground until about 1500 ft--and then just barely. Before we could get off the plane, some people in masks came onto the plane and took every person's temperature, one by one, to screen for swine flu. They then took my temperature no fewer than two more times before I could get out of the airport.

I am staying in a hostel located in a hutong, a traditional Chinese dwelling consisting of a walled courtyard abutting a narrow street. My housing is probably more important to me her than any other place I'm traveling to, because I will be largely on my own in Beijing, and I'll need to met people. Fortunately, it's worked out very well so far. After I checked in yesterday, the hostel hosted a free dumpling party for all of the guests, and I met some people I liked over the food and some (very cheap, but good) beer. Also, Internet is free--a big plus for me.

On the topic of Internet access, I was curious to see just what was and was not permitted by the Chinese government, which has an army of 30,000 people censoring anything it doesn't like, particularly anything related to Tiananmen Square "events" or Taiwanese independence. This includes blocking access to Facebook from time to time--I was able to access last night but not this morning--and cleverly eliminating large portions of Wikipedia articles so that you would never know they were there. For instance, there is a Wikipedia entry on Tiananmen Square, but there is no mention of what happened in 1989.

Today, I rented a bike and headed out to see the Olympic sights with Diego, an Argentinian man who I met last night at dinner. He is studying Mandarin here for a month and a half, so he was able to ask directions from people on the street. After a long ride (maybe an hour?) we got to go inside both the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. Almost all of the people there-and there were a lot--were Chinese tourists. Apparently, we are as much of a tourist attraction as the buildings. I was ask to pose with Chinese people for about five pictures while we were there.

I'm now back at our hostel, resting after the long ride. It's difficult to do anything physical here for very long, because the air really is terrible. I may try to go to dinner with some of the other people at the hostel later...I'll keep my camera with me!