Monday, July 9, 2007

From the Bay to Beijing

I arrived here in Beijing on Monday night at about 7pm. Since then I've just checked into the hotel, caught up on email, and chilled.

I did go on a short walk though. The hotel, St. Regis, is located near the embassies so there is a ton of shopping and Western chains nearby including Sizzler and TGI Friday's. Nothing says Chinese food better than curly fries and mudslides. I doubt I'll try it.

The bright side of being close to the embassies is that the street vendors are nearby and dudes selling DVD's are always easily found. I picked up Spider-Man 3, Ratatouile, Shrek the Third, Letters of Iwo Jima, and Fantastic Four. All movies I would see for about $1, which is what they cost.

This is my third time here in the last 22 months, so I feel pretty comfortable rolling around, but the one thing I can never get used to is the absence of the term "personal space" or cordially waiting in line. This time the first intrusion began before I even got off the plane. I had a aisle seat, but somehow the 60-something couple sitting in the middle and window seats were able to get past me and off the plane before I did. It was like some shaolin magic trick or something. I gotta learn that one.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Don't you take Muni? You should be used to that shaolin magic by now.

Nice on the DVDs. Please bring Ratatouille to Kauai! (I'd watch any of those actually)