first impressions

well i arrive in beijing on monday. my plane was a half-hour late, customs took forever to go through, even still there was my good friend matt kern waiting for me. it was nice having someone here i already know. i have this great feeling about china as soon as i arrive into beijing proper from the airport. there are people everywhere. well this country does have over a billion people. the streets are filled with cars, bikes, buses. i love all the bikes. everyone rides them from young girls to old men. the buses are packed with chinese like sardines. the cars are all suprisingly nice. i have not seen one bucket. audi, honda, lexus, the same ones we have and some we do not. we walk around the major spots. my friend here is living the lush life. his apartment is off the heezy and it is on the park ave. of beijing. hunger sets in. i want to immerse myself into the chinese culture. when in rome. so for food we went to eat pizza. the pizza was good, but the belgian beer was even better. okay, so maybe the immersion will start later, if ever. they got everything over here we got, but here it is a little bit different. kfc and mcdonalds are all over the place. i did have a long flight so the night was cut short.
the next day i wake early to head to the forbidden city. this place is the must see of beijing. i just think of the movie the last emporer, that was filmed there. it is huge and took over three hours to walk around. well, it is a city. so i took lots of photos and got a few stares. i love the stares. a chinese man will see you and then tap his buddy that he is walking with, so they both can get a good look at you. i am a tall black man in china, which helps because i can easily get the photos i want without having to get in front of anyone. after the forbidden city, i walked all around this area similar to times square. i had a bigmac and then thought, why the hell am i eating this shit. i need something authentic. i go to this vendor and he is selling something that looks like a gyro. sounds good to me. i pay him, less than one dollar american, then began to eat my gyro. well it does not necessarily taste like lamb. you know what that means. that's right kids, cat in a pita pocket, yum yum. tomorrow i leave for my city, chongqing. it is about and hour and a half flight southwest from here. next post will come for the CQ. peace out. edub