Beijing Impressions, Day 2

In the morning, I went to the Summer Palace, the emperors' little getaway outside of town. Supposedly it's only a square mile or so, much smaller than the Forbidden City, but it feels much larger. On the photos, it's going to look like a hillside dominated by one huge temple, but I counted at least a hundred named buildings on my little tourist map alone.

An indication of Beijing's smog: I wasn't able to get a very clear picture of anything I wasn't directly in front of. It looked like fog at first - except it never burned off, even at high noon on a hot day. In fact, there were a few photos I didn't manage to take at all - I just ended up with a frame of white haze.

I was there right at 8:30, when the place supposedly opens, and yet when I got inside it was already chock-full of people, including a few hundred doing tai chi to musical accompanyment. The locals must know something I don't.

I can't believe how much I've been sweating. I've had a half-liter of bottle of liquid every hour or so from dawn til dusk, yet I only had to piss once. My face feels sandy at the end of the day, it's so covered in salt crystals. The locals must either have had the sweat conditioned out of them, or they're operating at a Lance Armstrong level of fluid efficiency. Either way, I'm well on my way to joining them.

Chickened out of a real Chinese meal once again. There was this really nice restaurant inside the palace, and the menus were even in English. Trouble was, they were set menus, and all of the choices included several fish courses. Sorry, but I just can't take it. Nothing against Chinese cuisine - I don't like fish in Italian or Mexican, either.

Instead, my salvation has been steamed, pork-filled buns (baozi). They're omnipresent, hard to mess up, and you can get a dozen for the aforementioned $1.25. I did spot a McDonald's down the street from the campus, but I'm not going to sink to that level. Tonight's ramen: roast beef.

More thoughts to come on the remainder of the day...