Believing Beijing

This long day involved our flight to Beijing -delayed. Thankfully, like almost all flights there was an in flight meal. It was completely average.

Coming into Beijing from the sky (and this time it's daylight!) it was possible to see the coal burning plants, the snaking rivers, and the confusingly dispersed city. Beijing more than anywhere seems to lack a distinct downtown, and that's not to say it's not developed. The downtown would be huge if all of these areas were packed into one, but you probably wouldn't want to do that.

In Beijing we stayed at a Hu Tong, this is sort of a network of courtyard houses. While our Hu Tong stay was in a hostel, my experience felt really positive since being in the Deluxe Suite which had a fish pond, a ping pong table, and walls of ornaments and books.



Our short stop in the Hu Tong was interrupted for the Peking acrobats show. The acrobats went absolutely above and beyond for their audience. So much that some people couldn't even watch. When the first motorcyclist began to rip around the inside of the spherical cage  I whisper to Alex "I'm fine as long as they  don't put another guy in there." So they another six, I think.



The night wrapped up with a meal and a walk around Ho Hai. I would compare this to a sort of Granville Island place, but it's more similar to the PNE at night.