I’ve made several friends from China via ICQ. It turns out that I knew few things about China! Our world view and thinking are absolutely different!
(VI) About restaurants and other points of public catering.
There are a lot of them, to any taste and budget. There are restaurants of Indian, American, Canadian and Russian cuisines, there are traditional McDonald’s and quite European Coffee-Houses, super-fashionable and super-expensive restaurants, and certainly cheap Chinese eating houses. The first floors of all non-front streets are occupied by shops and restaurants. By the way it is quite difficult to determine the title of such Chinese establishments. It is for sure not a restaurant – a restaurant has a board with the corresponding hieroglyphs and proud inscription “Such-and-such Restaurant”, besides it is by definition fashionable, sparkling, clean and with all kinds of gadgetry like lanterns, small fountains, girls in bright silky dresses with the high slashes to the waist and menus with the striking prices – thus it is undoubtedly not a restaurant.
(V) About souvenirs and trade.
The main principle of the trade in Beijing is as simple as only possible: a thing costs as much as one is ready to pay for it. One of the brightest samples is the souvenir market near the closest to Beijing segment of the Chinese Wall. The Wall repeats the relief of every mountain, that is why it is quite difficult to climb certain upper sites - there are nearly vertical zones, you have to clutch at with your hands and feet. The same souvenirs are sold at the Wall’s foot and on top of it. But on the top the goods are some 10 times less expensive than at lower stages. And the beverages have absolutely another picture. The same thing happens in Beijing. There are luxurious department stores, located near the hotel complexes, and common shops.
(IV) About Police
Police is everywhere, at least in the central streets. The patrol cars and motorcycles are moving with the constantly switched on flashers...
(III) About Taxi and road traffic...
There are a lot of taxi-cars in Beijing, at least in the central streets. A single movement of your hand and a red Citroen with a red-and-white hieroglyph on the windshield stops by you. The Pekinese taxi drivers can hardly speak English language. You can use this “widely spread” language at the expensive hotels (3* and on) and in the high quality restaurants. However this problem can be easily solved by means of purchasing a map of Beijing - it is enough to show the place on the map you want to get to and the driver will bring you there on the shortest path and fairly inexpensively.
(II) About the hotels...
Beijing, like any other capitals, boasts great number of hotels to any tastes and budgets. The star category is the same as at the Europe: a five star hotel will be exactly a 5 star hotel, and a hotel of 3 stars will be only a 3 star hotel, without correction for certain specificity of Chinese understanding the star categories...
(I) About China...
The first strong impression of China came to me already in the plane. It was a late flight, in the darkness, and the last hour before our landing one could see in the illuminator a sea of lights … after the endless and uninhabited Siberian expanses it really impressed. Tianjin Airport is of the world standards level: cleanliness, luster, quick and polite service...
I saw "Crank" some days ago!...
Andrew
Anthony
Allison
Ben
Brandon
Brianna
Brooke
Const