Return to the Blogosphere!

A week is really a very long time to go without blogging or reading blogs. I'll call it a good healthy detox and leave it at that. I decided to do a series of photo posts with commentaries. Despite the pollution, what I saw in Beijing was too beautiful to cut down to just a few photos. My first afternoon in Beijing was a bit short owing to me getting (predictably) lost on the way to my hostel. I did manage to wander around Tiannamen Square and the local neighborhoods though.Notice how ridiculous the smog is? That's not fog. That is smog. Even a couple of hours outside of Beijing the sky doesn't completely clear up. There was one day where I saw blue sky and it was magnificent. The large building in the background here is the Gate of Heavenly Peace, an entrance to the Forbidden City. Does anyone else find Mao's portrait over it just a bit ironic? You can't quite see it because of the smog but it's there.

So on hostelworld.com the reviews mentioned that there was construction going on in the street where the hostel was which was a bit inconvenient. I expected construction work, not a street that looked like it had been bombed. Observe:It actually got worse as they put in pipes. There was no place cordoned off for pedestrians so you just sort of had to pick your way. They put down some planks so you didn't have to leap over the trenches though on the second day. I feel bad for the people who tried to get to the hostel with rolling suitcases instead of frame packs.

Coming up next: The Great Wall of China with a special note on: The Great Firewall of China.