The Renée Review

April 15 – 19, 2006

Greetings from Beijing, China - home of the summer 2008 Olympic games...though, I am not sure how well our Olympians, or any others, will be able to breathe.  The air is as thick as pea soup and we literally have swallowed the air we’ve been breathing. People commonly wear surgical masks to go outside in this dust-covered city.  Beijing has no blue sky; one can not see the sun, moon, stars, clouds or anything, it’s just a grey film that doesn't bear any resemblance to what I know a sky can look like.   A sky with no life, sad really...the Gobi Desert is truly a threat to this city and the dust storms they suffer annually have hit much harder this year.

With a population somewhere between 17 and 18 million, the streets are surprisingly clean, there is a massive tree planting campaign and cranes litter Beijing’s skyline as it rapidly builds in preparation for the Olympic games.

On Easter Sunday, we attended an English and French mass at St. Mary’s, South Cathedral where tour busses of Chinese nationals were offloading to take photos of this “attraction.”  It was a mayhem of people trying to worship mixed with others coming to sight see - how funny it felt to be the objects of interest for tourists when we ourselves are tourists here.  During mass, the priest actually said, “The west enjoys to much freedom and that the limited freedom enjoyed in China, was a gift from God.”  The other surprising thing was that the church was packed.  Standing room only and that there were a multitude of nationalities celebrating there.  Amazing that the limited freedom of religion has grasped hold so strongly. 

We saw the Great Wall at the Badaling section, along with about 3 million other people!  Ironically, this is low season; high season begins May 1 and goes through the end of October.  I’m sure there must be sections of the Great Wall that are not so densely populated, but our lack of Chinese language skills were a deterrent in finding that secluded spot of wall.  Unbelievably, the Great Wall offers transport in a gondola, cable car or a mini roller coaster they call the sliding car!  You can be photographed sitting atop a two hump camel or small white horse and let’s not forget the circle vision theatre, museum and Starbucks at the bottom.  Hello Great Wall Disney! 

The most funny / strange thing at the Great Wall was an Asian family who kept trying to pull Marlo away from us…. A bit frightening until we figured out what it was they were after.  They had only wanted a photograph of Marlo posing with their children.  Weird, but cute!

The following day, we walked from our very well situated hotel, The Peninsula Palace, to the famed Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, also equipped with Starbucks.  I'm glad we've see these things, but.... way to much traffic and certainly to many people.  Once again, Marlo was asked to pose for a photo, this time with an Asian woman who smiled brightly at Marlo by her side!?!.... Marlo is feeling like Homer as “Mr. Sparkle” from the Simpson’s – It’s a very funny episode.  Walking back to the Peninsula, we passed the food market and items found in these food stalls were very different.  Our family dubbed this the food on a stick market, as everything was skewered and ready for roasting.  So, your order please…silk worm on a stick, black scorpion on a stick, grasshoppers on a stick, seahorses on a stick, snake on a stick, large bugs that looked like cockroaches on a stick, worms on a stick, come on, surely I’ve mentioned something tempting and tasty for you…

Another bizarre eye opener was that nothing recognizable is a bargain.  In fact, all those items made in China that we purchase back home with those lovely Nike, Coach, Prada, Dior, Gucci, Channel, Addidas, etc. labels on them, cost 40% more money here!  I'm sure there is a knock off market, but with traffic and air pollution as it is; I have no desire to go out hunting these things down.  However, if you are willing to shop for fashion sake and purchase nice quality items with brands you have never heard of, there are quality items at reasonable prices.  In the end, you probably are not here to fill your suitcase with new clothing anyway.