Beijing: The Skyless City

Beijing has no sky. The closest thing to it is a permanent haze of industrial and automotive pollution. My first days here I assumed it was overcast, but nothing changes, mornings and afternoons are indistinguishable. The dirt is not as obvious as the absence of sky suggests, however. On nearly every street an orange-uniformed peasant sweeps with a straw broom and a hinged tin canister. The jumpsuits are always too big, rolled cuffs scraping the street, fraying. It is definitely too soon for this liberal travel guilt, but what do you do and how do you escape knowing that your approximate daily budget is more than what 1 billion people in China earn in one month? The average income of city dwellers is 2-4x higher than the country's peasants, closer to $1000 a year.

What else? The crippled pawns in the shopping district, placed near bowls they can not even reach, so many bicycles, traffic congestion, the heat and cement combining and ensuring insufferable stickiness, the spitting - everyone speaks of the spitting, people staring at my shoes, and even in this big city some things are incredibly cheap. My hostel is reasonable, a bunk in a 6 bed room, about US$6 a night with free breakfast. Other meals are reasonable from US$.25- US$3 for street or simple restaurant food.

Yesterday I went to the Great Wall. I was under the delusional impression that the walk would be pleasant. Against better judgement, I went with a group put together by the hostel. We were plunked at the base of a moderately sized mountain and climbing it brought us to Tower 1 of the Jinshaling Wall section. The hike took just under an hour and we were meant to hike to another section of the Great Wall, Simatai, at Tower 30. Now, the distance covered and exertion required for covering one or two towers is completely reasonable. It was terribly difficult and strenuous to cover as much as we did- about 4 miles along the wall after the 2 miles uphill hike. I was happy that the group spread out and I was by myself almost the whole time. The haze of Beijing followed us to the wall, unfortunately, making photos look ominous and dingy.

Tomorrow morning I take a 30 hour train to Ulan Bator, Mongolia. I'm ecstatic, as Mongolia is one of these places that I fantasize about as an anthropologist. It is second only to Borneo, which I visited two years ago. The plan is to find 1-3 other solo travelers, buy horses and gear and set out for a couple weeks. That seems easy enough.

Here is a quick reference so you can see what time it is where I am... I made this to have in my notebook: