As the Wind Blows

My initial impression of Beijing was that it was one of the cities that I built whilst playing Sim City. In fact they even have congestion signs to warn drivers how busy the roads up ahead are going to be – if they haven’t figured it out after 10 mins in immobile traffic. But I don’t mind waiting in traffic in Beijing, because I love the architectures of the buildings. Unlike my cities, not all the buildings are rectangular prisms but come in different designs and a variety of materials and colours. It definitely makes the cityscape a lot more interesting when travelling around in slow moving traffic.

The ancient temples and palaces in Beijing on the other hand all have similar designs and exactly the same colour scheme – red, gold, blue and green while the hutongs (old style Chinese houses in alleyways) are all grey in comparison. I don’t know why the emperors didn’t want their citizens to have brightly coloured houses, because the two palaces I saw were mightly grand and impressive enough that they would have stood out a mile away. And places like the Summer Palace are several hectares long (and come with a huge lake and islands) so no one could really doubt the emperors power and wealth.
I personally prefer the Hutong areas. Probably because I’m a peasant at heart but more so I think it’s because that’s where the heart of the city lies. Where all people come to peddle their wares, eat, drink, relax, challenge their friends to board games and sometimes even learn how to dance. So much happens in these areas and it’s fun just to soak up the atmosphere.

After almost six months without Asian food (South East Asian specifically cuz Asian in the UK means sub continental Asia ie India) I was finally able to get my fill of at least one variety of Asian food. (Though I’m still missing my Pad Thai, Laksa and Wonton Soup  ) And boy there’s a lot of choices of food and flavours over in Beijing. If you’re on a diet I would not recommend going over there because portion control and calorie counting is impossible, you just need to eat and eat until you can’t eat anymore. If you don’t you’re not really enjoying the meal! :P I did discover  the quick and healthy Hot Pot meals over there and I think we should have more back home.

And of course there’s the shopping. In some parts of Beijing I honestly felt I was at Paddy’s Market (both the Haymarket and Flemington) with some shopping places lined with many little cubby holes selling a huge variety of clothes, furniture, souvenirs, statues and everything in between. Other parts of Beijing, felt like you were in any other shopping district in the world, with streets lined with the high street fashion and huge, shiny shopping centres (one even had the new shopping centre smell.)

My final impression of Beijing? Well it's a very large and busy city. Not the busiest in the world and by no means the largest, but bigger and larger than any of the European cities I have been to in the last six months. And it make me realise that I do really miss good Asian food! :P