China the Unexpected

China! What an amazing pleasant surprise! Quite frankly, in the initial planning of the trip I was lukewarm about including China at all. I felt we had to at least hit a few highlights, but I didn’t expect to really like it all that much. I was going for the “educational” experience. I expected drab clothing, long faces, gray buildings, dirty streets, military bearings, and…well, you catch my drift.

Not so! China is alive with color, smiles, cleanliness, beauty, happy people, HIGH fashion, amazing architecture and sights like we’ve never seen before.

Beijing, as you may remember, has been chosen as the site of the Summer Olympics in 2008, beating out, among other cities, our own Big D. After seeing Beijing and the preparations that are underway for the Olympics, all four of us agree that the very idea that Dallas could compete in the world arena with a city like Beijing is both ludicrous and naive. Of course, we love Dallas, but let me explain.

Beijing, a city of 13 million people, is so big it defies the imagination. Everything is huge—the buildings, the squares, the parks, the boulevards, the hotels, the billboards—everything. Although the buildings aren’t as tall as New York, it makes New York feel smaller because the scale is so much more grand. You don’t walk across the street in Beijing—there are underground passageways. Otherwise you would cross about 10 lanes of traffic, which, like most cities in Asia, don’t pay attention to lanes anyway. Happily, our hotel was within walking distance to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City (thank you, Gwenna), but a walking city it isn’t. You would walk your feet into bloody stumps before you would get anywhere.

You could eat off the streets in Beijing. I don't think I've ever seen a city so clean. In spite of a massive building campaign, everything is neat and tidy. We saw a few of the new stadiums that are being built for the Olympics, as well as the structure which will be the site of the opening ceremonies (the bee hive, I think it's called) and they are so impressive. New hotels are going up, there are signs everywhere advertising the Olympic slogan, One World, One Dream, and the energy fairly vibrates throughout the city. Unlike Bhutan, where we sadly question whether the necessary renovations will be complete in time for the coronation of the king and the attendant ceremonies, Beijing WILL be ready and the world is in for a treat. It is clear the the Beijing Olympics will top anything we have ever seen before.

In our short time in Beijing, we didn't even begin to scratch the surface of what the city has to offer. . It would be worth going back to.