Beijing, Beijing, Beijing Beijing. Beijing. Beijing. (Sung to the Tune of Ole). Which is the chant we use for everything.

Hello all
Its been a bit of time since our last post, so we are bringing you Beijing part deux, Xian and a special dental surprise from the last three weeks. Our time in China is wrapping up as we are catching a train to Hanoi, Vietnam this week.
More to come from Vietnam.

Tonight we bought tupperware from Wal-Mart, yes, Wal-Mart, for our insta-veggie noodle creation for the train. Wal-Mart in China has the same phrenetic vibe as in the states, with some local color: there were vats of turtles for sale. However, these turtles were not to be sold as pets.

With love,
Max and Kara

p.s. Cheesy cam was sadly stolen on a crowded bus in Xi'an. Thus, less silly pictures, and pictures of Kara. They are basically the same thing, yes. Rest in peace, cheesy cam.

p.p.s. We write these captions together, Max wanted to make that clear. Kara already thinks this is obvious and hates writing in the third person.


New Beijing, Great Olympics, New Subway, Yeah Yeah, Blah Blah. We get it, Beijing. New Beijing, Great Olympics is the slogan the bureaucracy has used since they got the bid. You can find it written on every wall, referenced in theater programs, down every hutong alley, and on the occasional restaurant menu.


CCTV building in Beijing. Designed by Koolhaas. Maximilian's favorite building and not a small part of the reason he wanted to come to China....sadly, it is not finished. There were bunches of construction workers sleeping outside. We wonder what their schedule looks like, or their housing for that matter.


Old school logo painted on the walls of the perimeter of the construction site. They were a bit of an enigma, because those walls must have been put up recently.


Ti'anamen Square turned floral theme park. Neither one of us understood nor appreciated this change of face. It seems tacky and undignified, see following two pics.



So, we were really excited and possibly brainwashed about the Olympics after spending two weeks in Beijing. Naturally we wanted to go see the stadium and the aquacube. There was a new subway line and a brand new Olympic park built specifically for these two buildings. We assumed because of that, and because of everything we had been hearing about the Olympics that the Chinese gov would want to show off these gems of the Olympic games, up close and personal. This was NOT the case. After learning that the subway line was no longer running, merely 1 week after the close of the Paralympic Games, we learned we must take a bus. Ok, no problem. (Side note, there is no bus map in Beijing, a source of much frustration for New Yorkers. ) Once we found the bus, there was no sign on the bus indicating that it would drop us off anywhere near the Olympic park. To make a long story short, we got there, kind of. The closest bus took us about a mile away from the park. We were still really excited to get there. When we got there, the entire, ENTIRE park was fenced off. This park was huge. Max is emphatically stating and waving his hands around as I type, that it was "so big...really really big, so big, like the size of prospect park big!!!!" It was big, folks. And we walked the whole friggin perimeter trying to get as close as possible. And we were not alone. At one point, along with a stampede of Chinese tourists, we thought we found a breach in the fence, however, upon "sneaking in" we realized it was just a closer vantage point, guarded by Chinese police. God damnit.

Behind the bars. This is the absolute closest we could get. This is shot with my zoom.

The aquacube.

We heard a rumor that there might be tours given, but it is still unconfirmed.

There is an increasingly rapid growth of gigantic, unoccupied, yet impressive buildings in the city. This whole complex is completely empty. Its across the street from the stadium, and we went there, thinking we could schmooze our way to the top to get a better view of the Olympic park, however it was just lit up, but completely vacant.


This is not the largest screen tv screen in Beijing, however, its still about the size of Kara's house in Nashville. No exaggeration. Max thinks it is at least three times the size of Kara's house, if not four. Its not. But we will argue about that. Maybe forever.

So many people, all the time. Beijing subway.

So much stuff being carried on bike. Yes, dude on bike, that is why I am taking that picture. Also, not the biggest load we have seen.

Just walking, with huge stuffed animal. We stalked this girl for three blocks so Kara could get the right shot and also we wanted to know where you would possibly be going with such a large stuffed animal at 3 pm.

Tea.

SPACE WALK! on our subway commute! This was actually a very profound and moving experience, like watching a birth. We were so proud to be humans that day. Max tried to congratulate our subway neighbor, but he didn't understand. In the end, the thumbs-up sign had to suffice. Go China. Go. Hey, U.S.A., scared of the space race again!?!?!? YEAH! Mars, bitches, we want Mars!

This is cool. How many times does your cell phone die, and you need to charge it before getting on a 20 hour train ride? This stand has literally every cell phone charger. No, we don't have a sim card yet, sorry Michal. Even though we are currently schlepping three mobiles with us.


This is all TOFU!

We will not eat you, fish. Don't worry. We will never eat you.

Sick Kara eating tofu from a bag.

Penis lamp. Penis lamp next to Hello Kitty lamp?

Vegan Society, Beijing. This was a really cool thing we found about through some ex-pat magazine. A group of anywhere from 5-20 people meet every Thursday night at this restaurant and share food, stories, and tea. They were really nice and I am sorry to have cut off your head with mine, Australian natural health guy. We hope that we meet all of them again for another beautiful vegetarian meal.