Beijing, China May 1-2, 2009

In 2007, we saw Beijing for the first time. In 2009, we saw Beijing as a changed city. Gone are the millions of bicycles, although many are still there, and on with the electric buses! Yes, electric. They have tried to eliminate the horrible pollution problem and they have certainly put a big dent in it from the last time we were here...only 2 years ago. The Nest, where the Olympic games started in 2008 is certainty a sight to behold and we wondered if they could possibly finish it. They did. The people here work. They work hard. Everyone, no matter what their job, does it diligently, and they seem to have armies of every kind of workforce. Whether they are planting trees, sweeping streets, trimming hedges,...there are large groups of people doing the work. The amount of trees that have been planted here in the last 2 years would have to be in the hundreds of thousands. Those that know me know I can exaggerate. This is not an exaggeration! The beautification award for the city that has done the largest clean up effort hands down goes to Beijing! If they have one giant rug they swept all the "ugly" under. we did not see it. The city has a whole new feel. The Olympics make many cities go broke. The Olympics made this city shine.
In our photos old and new are within miles of each other, blocks of each other, steps of each other. We stayed over night in the Regent Hotel. It was lovely. We toured The Great Wall of China...again. This time, there was no snow. This time there were more people and the weather was wonderful. The kids found the locks where, if you watch The Amazing Race, the contestants had to go to to unlock one of the padlocks to get a clue...fun for them/us to see. They climbed WAY up the wall. The part of the wall we visited last time was much more flat. This area was a CLIMB and very STEEP. They got quite the workout going up as far as they could and brought down the oh so wonderful "I climbed the Great Wall" t-shirts for us!
Day two we got a driver that did not speak English and managed to tell him we wanted to go to the old antique markets. My goodness. If you love antiquing or shopping for junk...this is heaven on earth. I had no idea if I was holding something that was B.C. or 1960's Mao! There was SO much to see and look through we were overwhelmed. When we return, notice I said when, we will go back there. There are not many cities that are for sure repeats. This is one of them. The changes this city has made in 2 years is quite shocking. All for the better. I hope that Kathleen and Nicky both will learn how to speak Chinese before they go off to college, as the young generation there is certainly learning how to speak English. If they don't they might need to move to China right after high school graduation and learn. At the rate the Chinese are going, who knows what they might accomplish. Mandarin lessons for the over 40 could be handy as well!