Never trust air you can't see

Ah, beautiful Beijing. It is said that October in Beijing is when the air is clear and crisp, which I guess is the reason I am able to see the other side of the street from my hotel window (see photo). The polution here is almost a tourist attraction in itself. When I flew in bright and early on Monday morning, I thought, hmm, some morning fog. Well, I can now report that it ain't fog ! It's Beijing's answer to sun screen - smog. Ironically, smog makes for quite picturesque sunsets, when the light bounces off the small carbon-monoxide particles.

So here I am in Beijing. This trip certainly needs more blog coverage than my non-complimentary hotel internet access will allow me now, but I thought I'd put a few ramblings down while I'm here, or else it will undoubtedly become another unfinished "Tassie hike" report.

I have to be honest, my first impressions of Beijing were not fantastic, but I am very concious of the fact that I was not exactly fired up for this trip like I have been for OS trips in the past. Do I sound like a spoiled brat ? Probably. The thing is, you need energy to get around places like this. Not just the physical "get up and go" energy, but the mental energy to try and work out where the hell you are going, and how the hell you are going to find your way back (and cross the 8 lane road with no traffic lights in front of you). Getting simple things done has been difficult, due mainly to the language barrier. I needed to get a network cable for my laptop, so gestured my need to a taxi driver by pretending to type a computer keyboard in the hope that he would take me to a computer store. Ten minutes later I arrive at Beijing's premier piano store. I had to laugh when I got out and realised what he thought I meant. I have since managed to "borrow" a cable from the conference tech support crew :)

My second day in Beijing was much better than my first. I ticked off the forbidden city (which is quite amazing), Tiananmen Square and Behei Park (which is really quite beautiful). I guess I realised after seeing these things, just how diverse and extraordinarily large Beijing is. So my initial impressions have quickly improved, and I am enjoying getting out and about a lot more than at first.

The conference has helped this too. To put it bluntly, the conference is pretty uninteresting. Being the only person from ANU, and not knowing anyone else in attendance makes it difficult. I am not a natural shmoozer, particularly when faced with 1200 other attendees. What also hasn't helped is that I am currently trying to pep myself up after the disastrous realisation that I did not purchase a conference banquet ticket when I registered many months ago (or more precisely, ANU admin didn't). It was assumed that it was included in the registration fee, but for students, apparently not. It's more than a little dissapointing, because in addition to missing out on the chance to get sloshed with the robotics heirarchy, I also miss out on going to the venue, "The Great Hall of the People", which is pretty much the equivalent of Parliament house (or as equivalent as such a building can be in a communist country). So I am now left to my own devices, hence the blogging (oh how sad I am). I am going to head downtown after this to acquire what should be my fourth Peking Duck dinner this week (and I thought deep fried shrimp in New Orleans was going to kill me).

Beijing is certainly different to other Asian cities I have been to. Parts of it remind me of Hanoi, particularly the leafy back streets where it feels like you have gone back about 50 years. Other less pretty areas remind me of Bangkok. Unlike Vietnam and Thailand though, you are not hassled nearly as much by people trying to sell you things. As a Westerner, you do get a fair bit of attention though. People do try and sell things, but seem to take the second or third "no thanks" as being serious, and leave you alone. The roads are pretty hectic, and driving is pretty disorderly, but it is again, no where near as hectic as places like Saigon. One thing I find interesting is that despite the fact that drivers in beijing appear to cut people off without a moments thought, they do use their indicators when they do it. For some reason I find this comforting.

Beijing is not as built up as places like Hong Kong, or Tokyo. It is, however, one hell of a sprawl, and it is pretty obvious that a week in Beijing barely scratches the surface of what there is to see.

Anyway, I am running out of time, so I thought I'd just put some photos to give you some impression of what I've seen. Can't seem to upload them now (conspiracy perhaps?) so will post them soon.