Trip to Beijing, China

Last week, I took a business trip to Beijing, China.  The original plan was to bring Julia and the kids, but plans changed when Julia couldn't get a visa (as previously mentioned).  Luckily, my visa came though and so went by myself to the training course. 

My initial impressions:

You have to be careful as the locals like to charge high prices to foreigners.  Sometimes you can negotiate down, but other times not.  I did however, meet many nice people and enjoyed the efficiency of Chinese society.

Public transportation was pretty extensive and traffic wasn't an issue during my stay.  The roads are big and the buildings are spread out in the city, which I didn't expect in an asian city. However, smog was really bad. It made Jakarta air quality look great and that is no compliment. Apparently, they made temporary changes back in 2008 to clean up the air for the Olympics, but unfortunantly, that didn't last long.  The Bird's Nest stadium above was built for the Olympics and now is barely visible as you walk by.  You can feel the air as you breath... not good.

Many people rode electric bicycles with manual pedals as backup.  This is a novel idea that should be used in other places more.

 

 

I did have a bit of time to see some tourist spots like Tiananman Square and Forbidden City (pictured above).

I also visted the Gread Wall at Mutianyu about an hour outside of Beijing.  The Great Wall was the highlight of the trip and after an hour of hiking one way, I had to turn back as my legs turned to jello.  It got progressively foggier as well, so my friend and I decided to move on after about 2 hours on the wall. 

All in all, it was a memorable trip and it is great to back home in Jakarta.  :)