Thursday 24 May 2012

Beijing: May 14 - 22

Beijing


Our Long March

You can't play the Good, Culturally-Sensitive Tourist all the time.

Sometimes you need to retreat from what's outside--find a backpackers' hostel and binge on Cohen Brothers' story-telling and Monopoly Deal.

Sometimes you need to finesse the shock of people who've never seen a black guy before (and are still amazed by blondes) into something that will feed you and six others--walk a stone's throw from Tiananmen Square waving plasticboard signs with googletranslation offering "Photos 5  ¥ ".

Or maybe that's just us.

*

Bedtime Stories

Here's another Beijing snapshot: backpackers and expats having a sincere conversation about whether or not people dream smaller in countries crowded by poverty, heavy politics or other people--and what impact satellite TV and the internet might have had--while being taxied the half hour to a a bar disrict where a Heineken costs as much as five meals in any other region.

It's a life.

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