Beijing Days 12-13

Things have been quiet since I got back from the conference and the trip to the wind farm. I saw most of the touristy things last week, so I am killing some time this week before my flight to Mumbai on Saturday. I went to the Temple of Heaven Park yesterday (Tuesday), and the Beijing Zoo today to see the Giant Pandas. Both were worthwhile--Temple of Heaven not for the temples per se, but for the manicured, expansive park surrounding it that provided a welcome urban oasis, and the zoo for the ride in a luggage-cart-attached-to-a-bike that I took from the subway station. The Pandas just sat in a corner and hid and ate bamboo...not exactly the most exciting animal to watch, but they sure can eat bamboo.

My hostel, which I've always liked a lot, has been even better this week. Although I'm running short on movies they have that I want to watch, there is a PUPPY here this week! He's a year old, so sort of on the border betwen puppy and dog, but he definitely acts like a puppy--he loves to nibble and jump on you. His name is Pee Pee, and he is very soft and fun to pet when I can get him to stop trying to eat me.

The Summer Palace is the last "touristy" thing in Beijing for me to see. I will need to take a taxi, because it is in a relatively remote place of Beijing far from subway stations. I didn't do it today because the pollution was really, really, really bad. I just checked, and the API rating today has been up to 469...for reference, anything above 200 is considered "severe," and the scale stops at 500. The forecast for downtown LA today is in the 50s. Hopefully it will be better Thursday and Friday.

Beijing Days 9-11

This weekend, I went to the Energy Crossroads China conference. While most of the talks where pretty repetitive for me since I've been to a lot of similar events, I got the chance to meet many of the people on the organizing committee and as well as other participants from China and elsewhere in the world.

Today, there was an optional third day extension of the conference which only about 20 of us participated in (the first two days had 200+ participants). We took a bus to a wind farm outside of Beijing, which was definitely the highlight of the three days for me. I've read and heard a lot about wind power and wind turbines, but I've never actually visited a wind farm, so it was a pretty cool experience for me. This particular wind farm, which is located about 100km northwest of the city center, was built for the Olympics--the Chinese government wanted 20% of Beijing's electricity to come from wind during the Games. Part of the way they accomplished this was by drastically limiting the amount that people were allowed to consume, and part was by increasing capacity. This particular wind farm is not located in the area with the best wind resource--those sites lie in Tibet and other remote areas, and are now being developed--but it runs at a capacity factor of about 20% nonetheless. It consists of 43 1.5MW turbines, with an additional 57 turbines to be brought on line in the next year or so. All of the turbines were manufactured by a Chinese company (except for the inverters), which is a contentious issue in itself--there was a NYT article last week on the Chinese government's protectionist procurement of renewable energy technology. Any way, it was neat for me to see what I've been reading about.

I've moved back to my old hostel, which I'm very happy about. Tonight we have a free BBQ for everyone in the hostel, and I will probably enjoy some more Yanjing beer--it's about $0.75 per 20 oz bottle, so there's always a good excuse to get another.

Beijing Days 6-8

Last night, I met up with Eric and Dimitar at Pyro's Pizza, an American bar/pizza joint near the university where they're working. We decided to form a 3 person beer pong team (we rotated), and we won the tournament!!

In other news, I saw Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. They are both pretty impressive. The Forbidden City was the home of emperors for 600 years during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Apparently, they would often leave governing to their minions and never leave the city. A good portion of the complex was used as housing for the hundreds of concubines, and there were an army of cooks preparing food all day, so I guess the emperors felt like they had everything they needed right there. Tiananmen Square seemed very imperial and imposing, as you would expect, and there was lots of stuff dedicated to Mao, including a giant portrait of him above the main gate.

Today, it is gross and rainy outside, so I probably won't go see anything. Starting tomorrow, I will be taking part in the Energy Crossroads China conference for three days, which should be interesting.

Beijing Days 3-5

Since I have more time in Beijing than I want or need--a product of being stuck here due to the travel plans of the rest of my group--I've decided to take things as slowly as possible here, so that I don't do all of the fun stuff in the first few days, leaving a lot of days empty. However, after getting a Chinese cell phone--an accomplishment in itself--I met up with Dimitar and Eric Showen, who is also doing the Stanford EPGY program here, to explore the city. We went to a big park, then ate dinner at an overpriced Belgian restaurant and went for drinks on San Le Road, one of the few hotspots in Beijing. Our bar had a giant, eerily smily stuffed panda bear out front that all of us took a liking to, and we had a great night drinking cheap beer and watching people pass by.

After spending a very rainy Monday doing very little of anything, I got up very early this morning to meet Ivo and his girlfriend Helen to go to the Great Wall. There are three commonly visited spots on the Wall near Beijing. The first two are nearby and visited by tourists who want to take pictures and get back easily. We opted for the third option, which is a 3-4 hour hike along the wall in one of the more dramatic, hilly, but far-flung sections within driving distance of the city.

While I haven't been too impressed by what I've seen in China so far, the Wall was really something. The weather was beautiful--we were able to see the sky for the first time since getting here--and the setting was incredibly dramatic. In stark contrast to Beijing, which is set on a very, very flat plain, the wall ran along the highest ridge of a rugged, dramatic mountain range. We climbed along it, taking the stone steps at times at about a 45 degree angle, and eventually crossed a narrow gorge on a suspended pedestrian bridge. Hopefully the pictures give you some sense of what it was like. It's definitely one of the highlights of the entire trip for me thus far.

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!