I'd forgotten how important it is to do real touristing. It's easy to get lost in the whole "find-apartment-with-internet-find-food-find-somewhere-to-watch-the-world-cup" routine of shoestring jetsetting.
Well, this weekend I checked out much of central Beijing, including Tiananmen square and the forbidden palace, but also the main shopping drag, some cool hutongs, phone booths and even found an absolutely amazing tea shop. Especially strolling across Tiananmen square in the late evening, watching Beijingers and a mass of Chinese tourists play with kites surrounded by lit up monuments to the great People's party... it gave me goodebumps and for a short while convinced me that I live a really good life.
Checking out restaurants and bars at night and the local sights at day gives you a feeling of spiritual completeness. Both your nocturnal and your cultural glands get exercised. And when you reach the end of Sunday, you feel strangley both completely exhausted yet strong and refreshed. And quite ready to dive into a full week of work.
About photos... the absolutely WORST thing about blogger.com is that it's really pants at integrating photos. However, I've just found out about Picasa web albums, which allow me to post pics without struggling with the idiotic blogger interface.
So check out picasaweb.google.com/dundeeexpat/beijing for some cool snaps
