China Study Tour: Beijing as a tourist

One of the things that struck me most in India, and is also very clear in China is how very aspirational most of the population is. On the road to ENN, there were many nice vehicles – but there was also a massive traffic jam that delayed our arrival well over a half hour. The traffic in Beijing is atrocious. It’s the kind of traffic that makes you want to poke your eyes out – but only want, as you do eventually get to where you’re going.

Fashions here are really quite funny. On Thursday night, we went to Coco Banana, an aspirational club in Bar street. I say aspirational because most of the people who were there didn’t seem to be there because they were anyone special, but it was definitely a see and be seen sort of place. Tami said that she hadn’t had so much fun people watching in quite some time. My favorite was the guy wearing a leather vest – only the vest – with a slicked back low curly ponytail, white belt, and tight club hipster pants. Runner-up was the Chinese hipster hick – big aviator sunglasses, white beater rolled up at the waist, and a baseball cap.

Before going to the club and giggling at the patrons, some of us went to the Olympic stadium park to see the Water Cube and the Bird’s Nest. Those are some truly amazing buildings. I very much enjoyed being able to see them up close and not just on TV watching Michael Phelps kick everyone else’s butt. Go Michael Phelps! Anyway, the architecture is definitely a theme here – the CCTV building is also an amazing and interesting structure.

There is significant anecdotal evidence of European influence in the area. I saw a number of cargo containers on the highway for Merck or Hamburg-Süd, and I keep hearing German and French from other foreigners walking around the city. I haven’t actually seen all that many Americans, compared to the numbers of Europeans I’ve seen so far. Maybe I’m not looking in the right places.