How much do you really know about China?
Pretty substantial, wouldn't you say? Enough that I wanted to check it out myself. So, I took a 12-day trip to visit three cities - Beijing, Nanjing, and Shanghai - to learn more about the people, the culture, and most importantly, the food.
The flight over was long - very long - but because you're flying with the sun, you have spectacular views of the Canadian, Arctic, and Russian landscape below the entire time. Not the most ideal conditions in which to go down, but I assume that if you're dropping quickly from cruising altitude, the climate doesn't matter a whole lot.
The views weren't so clear when I landed in Beijing - according to the locals, I was greeted with the worst smog the city has seen in years and pollution 20 times the safe limit. I jumped in a taxi for a ride to the hotel (those of you in L.A. would have cried - one hour cost me just under $16) and started to seriously consider buying a mask.
A tip to anyone considering traveling to China: Always have your destination address written in Chinese characters to show the taxi driver. Very that I encountered were able to read English addresses, and understandably so. Another option, and one I prefer, is to make friends with a nice gentleman in the lobby who will call and speak to the driver on your behalf.
After checking into my room, I did everything I could to stay off of the bed because as badly as I wanted to fall into it, I had a car coming to pick me up and take me to a dinner in an hour. If I went down, I wasn't getting back up anytime soon. I passed the time trying to figure out the traffic patterns.
Thirty minutes of watching led me to believe that there were none.
At dinner I had my very first taste of Peking Duck, jellyfish, and lotus root before coming back and crashing, and crashing hard.
I had a meeting in the morning, but it was over with plenty of time to do my very favorite thing - solo exploring in a new city - before meeting some college friends for dinner. Going off a recommendation from a dinner companion the night before, I caught another taxi to the Hutongs surrounding the Houhai Lake area.
A very sweet, very persistant rickshaw driver talked me into a ride around the lake, insisting that we stop along the way to take awkward photos of me.
I made him do the same.
We struggled to understand one another, but he was entertaining enough that I felt I got my money's worth.
About thirty minutes into the trip, I had a bit of a scare when my guide tried to lead me down an alley. (Dad, close your eyes.) I very reluctantly agreed.
(Mom, tell Dad to re-open his eyes.) Fortunately, he led me straight into a quadrangle, a very typical courtyard dwelling of Beijing in years past. I met an artisan who printed my name (or a rough translation of my name) in Chinese characters. This was the one souvenir I wanted for my office, and while I'm sure I grossly overpaid for it, I was glad to have it it taken care of so early.
I wandered back out to my smiling rickshaw river and hopped back on to finish our slow, creaky ride around the lake.
We eventually parted ways, and I rushed home to sneak in a nap before meeting up with two friends who both work at the Wall Street Journal in Beijing. Over an unforgettable meal of shaved tofu skin and perfectly-marinated banana peels and noodles and cheap Chinese beers, they overwhelmed me with their knowledge of Chinese politics and had me laughing with stories of trying to "blend in" (one is a blond, like me, and often has to find disguises to get locals to speak with him).
I slept in the taxi on the way home and literally crawled into my bed that night, belly and brain quite full.
So far, I liked this country.
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