bfd
04-03-2011, 05:52 PM
Just got back from 10 days in China - Beijing, Datong and HK. The girls and my mom had a good time.Some interesting points:
- there's no recession in China! Construction cranes can be seen everywhere in Beijing and Datong. At one point we counted over 15 cranes in one direction. Big high rise buildings are the in-thing in Northern China. In contrast, money is everywhere in HK as the malls are packed with young people and all the stores including many high-end designer ones appeared to be very busy.
- cars - in Beijing and Datong - *the* car to be seen in are black Audis (A6 or A8). That's the choice of head govt officials and can be seen everywhere. While Audis are the car to be seen in, VW also has a large presence. So, do Citroens and Peugeots. Interestingly, saw Toyotas and some Nissans, but Lexus was almost non-existent. In contrast, in HK you see big MBs, BMWs and we saw and heard at least 2 Ferraris.
- bicycles - when I was in China in 97, saw tens of thousands of bicycles. Now, maybe just hundreds or a few thousand. In Beijing alone, a city of 14 million people, there were maybe a few thousand bikes. In Datong, a city of 2.8 million people, saw some bikes, but more scooters and motorcycles. In most cases, the bikes were utility bikes used to haul stuff or commuting.
Also, only saw a couple of riders, on mtbs, using helmets. Let's not start a helmet war, but if your bike is hauling thing on a large platform or just used as a commuter, you are probably not riding too fast and maybe don't need it.
- traffic - with cars replacing bicycles, comes traffic. Seems like everywhere we went there was massive amount of traffic. When in China, expect lots of traffic and factor in lots of time to get places. Even short trips took at least 1/2 hour.
- smog. On the way to the airport, I thought it was really foggy. Then I was reminded that there wasn't any fog in Beijing, it was smog. With everyone getting cars, smog is really bad and will only get worse as someone said there was something like 6K new cars being sold every day in China. Not good.
- subways - in Beijing, you really see how crowded it gets at rush hour. Trains are packed and there are people everywhere. Surprisingly, the trains move quickly and are very efficient. Makes you wonder why SF Muni and Bart can't be this way!
- smoking - People smoke everywhere in China - hotels, restaurants,
stores, everywhere. In Beijing, we changed room once because we walked
into our room and it was smoky! In Datong, we stayed at a "five star"
hotel and everywhere it smelled like smoke. People smoked in the lobby, hallways, restaurants and the rooms had notices not to smoke in bed. There was also 2 ash trays in our room. So much for "non-smoking." I couldn't sleep because everything smelled like smoke and it affected my asthma. This really contributed to me being very tired.
Now, I need to get back to doing laundry....Good Luck!
- there's no recession in China! Construction cranes can be seen everywhere in Beijing and Datong. At one point we counted over 15 cranes in one direction. Big high rise buildings are the in-thing in Northern China. In contrast, money is everywhere in HK as the malls are packed with young people and all the stores including many high-end designer ones appeared to be very busy.
- cars - in Beijing and Datong - *the* car to be seen in are black Audis (A6 or A8). That's the choice of head govt officials and can be seen everywhere. While Audis are the car to be seen in, VW also has a large presence. So, do Citroens and Peugeots. Interestingly, saw Toyotas and some Nissans, but Lexus was almost non-existent. In contrast, in HK you see big MBs, BMWs and we saw and heard at least 2 Ferraris.
- bicycles - when I was in China in 97, saw tens of thousands of bicycles. Now, maybe just hundreds or a few thousand. In Beijing alone, a city of 14 million people, there were maybe a few thousand bikes. In Datong, a city of 2.8 million people, saw some bikes, but more scooters and motorcycles. In most cases, the bikes were utility bikes used to haul stuff or commuting.
Also, only saw a couple of riders, on mtbs, using helmets. Let's not start a helmet war, but if your bike is hauling thing on a large platform or just used as a commuter, you are probably not riding too fast and maybe don't need it.
- traffic - with cars replacing bicycles, comes traffic. Seems like everywhere we went there was massive amount of traffic. When in China, expect lots of traffic and factor in lots of time to get places. Even short trips took at least 1/2 hour.
- smog. On the way to the airport, I thought it was really foggy. Then I was reminded that there wasn't any fog in Beijing, it was smog. With everyone getting cars, smog is really bad and will only get worse as someone said there was something like 6K new cars being sold every day in China. Not good.
- subways - in Beijing, you really see how crowded it gets at rush hour. Trains are packed and there are people everywhere. Surprisingly, the trains move quickly and are very efficient. Makes you wonder why SF Muni and Bart can't be this way!
- smoking - People smoke everywhere in China - hotels, restaurants,
stores, everywhere. In Beijing, we changed room once because we walked
into our room and it was smoky! In Datong, we stayed at a "five star"
hotel and everywhere it smelled like smoke. People smoked in the lobby, hallways, restaurants and the rooms had notices not to smoke in bed. There was also 2 ash trays in our room. So much for "non-smoking." I couldn't sleep because everything smelled like smoke and it affected my asthma. This really contributed to me being very tired.
Now, I need to get back to doing laundry....Good Luck!