Recently I’ve been to Beijing with a friend of mine and I would like to share some pictures as well as my thoughts about life in China. We did not travel as common tourists who stay in hotel, instead we tried to get to know the local people and see how they live. It was a great experience, and in some ways quite eye-opening.
Traffic
First thing which surprised us was the sheer immensity of Beijing. It is just incredibly huge. It took us about 1.5 hour by car to get to down-town, and all the time there were high buildings on both sides of the road. I am not sure if there are traffic rules in China (joking) but for sure almost nobody give a damn about it. It is a little anarchy and a little bit more dangerous than we are used to – we saw 5 or 6 accidents in just a couple of hours. It is quite common to overtake other cars from any side you choose or to honk just to notify other drives that you are approaching. Who needs winker if you can just honk? 🙂
By the way, when I returned to Prague, I was surprised by the “deserted” streets. Where was everyone? Until then I thought that Prague is too huge for a simple life. But when compared to Beijing every city is small. Now even Prague seemed very quiet and almost provincial 🙂
Beijing subway is a chapter of its own. It is very cheap – just 2 Yuan for a ride anywhere. I guess it must be subsidized. Be prepared that security is taken very seriously in China. You bag will not be scanned only in the airport but also every time you enter the subway. Personally, I hate it. I felt like I am treated as a potential terrorist. But after we have experienced and survived the rush hour in subway I understood this security precaution. There was such an incredible mass of people during rush hour that we missed 3 trains until we managed to get inside. It was quite a fight:) But I don’t want to scare you 🙂
More will follow soon. Stay tuned…