3. Beijing
Today is a beautiful looking day in Beijing, but the air pollution index is worse than before, and I have the headache and dizziness to show for it. I suppose one acclimates to this, and it doesn’t bother you if you live there, but lifetime Beijingren develop a cough like a smoker’s cough as they age, no doubt because of chronic exposure to this stuff. This happens even to nonsmokers, although smoking is much more common in China than in America
Beijing is a city that seems hostile to life. It is very dry in Beijing, with an ambient humidity of 20% today. (For reference: the ambient humidity in New York is 72%, Boston 82%, and Durham, NC, is 53%. My house in Boston is usually around 60% indoors.) there is little rainfall, except in the monsoon season where Beijing gets all of its annual rain in a couple of weeks. There are flood-diversion canals all over the city to prevent the roads from washing out when this occurs.
The city is very dusty. Dust from the Gobi desert blows in from the west, combines with air pollution and pollen and exploded fireworks and whatever else, blows into the city and gets stuck in the mountain ranges surrounding Beijing, so you’re stuck in a bowl of dusty air. It is slightly better if you live on the mountains, and it has improved a lot since 2017 when I last visited. But the city still sometimes gets bad days like today.
There is very little water to be had in Beijing, and importing water has been a steady business here since the Ming dynasty. Bottled water is pretty cheap, especially in large volume formats, so that most all of the water used for drinking and cooking has been hauled in from somewhere else. (Tap water is generally okay for bathing and brushing teeth.)
The only reason this city exists is because of the Empire, which has ruled from here, on and off, since 220 BCE. (If they didn’t govern here, they were in Nanjing. The names of the cities reflext this.) Beijing is hard to invade because of the mountain ranges which mostly surround it. The Grand Canal was extended through public works to stretch all the way up to Beijing and permit trade from the south.
Everywhere I go here I get stared at. It’s unusual now to see white people in Haidian District, sort of like how it would be unusual to see a macaw riding someone's shoulder at the shops. mostly people ask where i came from and i am happy to reply. I can make myself understood and usually get the jist of what is said, but my Chinese language skills are far from perfect.
Beijing is bordered by a series of beltways called Ring Roads. The first road basically just circumscribes the forbidden city. There are seven, i think, in total, and it covers a large area.
4. China Culture
This section is where I can discuss things I notice in Chinese culture that differ from the West. I’ll start with some basic lists and move on to more esoteric concepts.
List 1: cultural differences
Hole in the ground toilets.
These aren’t exclusive to China, I saw some in Turkey as well, but I really don’t like them. You may as well just be pissing on the ground. Most toilets do not stock paper either, so BYO.
Pro tip: if you are sightseeing in China, hotel lobby bathrooms will be appointed in the Western style, and are generally allowed for public use. Restaurants do not necessarily have a bathroom for customers.
Disbelief in iced drinks
Chinese people seem to understand that beer and cola and iced lattes are best consumed cold. This understanding doesn’t apply to water, and somehow the people stay hydrated drinking it. I find I tend to sip hot drinks and consume them more slowly, so when im thirsty it is confounding to have to choose between 15 types of tea or hot water. The Chinese think I’m similarly crazy, and some hosts reacted in disbelief when they were told I was given ice chips during my daughter’s birth. (Chinese believe you can die from drinking cold drinks if you are in a fragile state of health.) this got to a point where ice cubes were some foreign concept in the boondocks.
No Dryers
Minor quibble, but this is why you see people’s laundry flapping in the wind from the window of their 6th floor kruschova apartments. It confuses me because while most things can dry just fine on the line, how does one keep their towels and blue jeans in a fit state? Seems like they would get all scratchy and hard.
No Deodorant
I neglected to pack this and when I asked about getting some I was told people in China have no need for this product because they don’t get BO. I doubt that very much, but I ended up having to special order some from Japan.
Cash is not King
Nowadays most people only accept Wepay or Alipay, which is basically like PayPal with QR codes. Oddly enough for a society that prizes cash so much, hard currency is not too common in day to day shopping. The cashless society I guess, but how am I supposed to keep my earnings out of sight from the taxman if every transaction is recorded online? Dilemma.
No Drugs!
China is insanely strict about narcotics and drugs of abuse. So I’ve left several medications stateside and discontinued use of MJ (which is legal in Boston.) the strict nature of the prohibition is very much at odds with the history of opium use in China and its current role exporting illicit fentanyl and meth. Meanwhile the government is warning you that recreational NO2 use can result in jail time.
