I decided to strike out on my own. Be an adventurer, an explorer…a traveler. I have travelled before…I have seen much of the US and Canada, even a bit of England and Scotland. My most exotic trip to date was Guatemala, on which I actually encountered many hiccups…bit by a monkey, burnt by lava, arrested…to name a few. I decided to go for it anyway; I wanted to be one of those people that saw the world. I wish I could say that it was my passion to experience new and exotic lands that led me to China but really it was just my combined love of Pandas and egg rolls.
Completely clueless I climbed aboard a 777 Korean Air, bound for…Beijing! I emerged, bleary eyed, from the aircraft after what seems to be most of my 30’s and was confronted with compete chaos. Previous to China, my experience with crowds was mostly focused around avoiding the mall at Christmas. My sense of adventure ran out that first night after I managed to make it to my hotel. I was scared, tired and hungry. The language barrier was a little more difficult then I had imagined - my rudimentary French and ghetto Spanish were definitely not coming in handy. I spent my night, cowering in my hotel room with some airport leftover Pringles contemplating the vast error in judgment that I had made.
As usual, things were better in the morning and with a sense of adventure restored I set off to blaze new trails with a guidebook and a cartoon map. It turns out real Beijing has mo
re streets and alleys then cartoon Beijing, and I think the scale of my map was off as well. I didn’t make it far before I encountered my first glitch – crossing a foreign street. Eight lanes of traffic whizzed by with no signs of stopping. I stood there for a while trying to watch and learn from the locals who seemed to have adopted a frogger-like approach to survival. Right there, at that point in time became a defining life moment. I was petrified, jet-lagged and by now had realized that I was in way over my head. It took everything in me to step off that curb and metaphorically into my travelling future. I still think if there had been any Pringles left in my hotel room I would have turned around and gone back.
re streets and alleys then cartoon Beijing, and I think the scale of my map was off as well. I didn’t make it far before I encountered my first glitch – crossing a foreign street. Eight lanes of traffic whizzed by with no signs of stopping. I stood there for a while trying to watch and learn from the locals who seemed to have adopted a frogger-like approach to survival. Right there, at that point in time became a defining life moment. I was petrified, jet-lagged and by now had realized that I was in way over my head. It took everything in me to step off that curb and metaphorically into my travelling future. I still think if there had been any Pringles left in my hotel room I would have turned around and gone back.
Hours l
ater (much of that spent crossing the street) I stumbled upon a large, open area. It took me a minute to realize why I suddenly felt a pang of recognition. I was a kid when the Tiananmen Square Massacre happened, but I remember watching the images on CBC news, I just didn’t realize how much of it all I retained. It was almost 20 years later and I was now standing on the very site that essentially introduced me to the horrors of humanity. Time stood still and yet marched on in that square. The military presence was still evident everywhere you turned but it was also possible to purchase a hat celebrating the upcoming Olympics from a street vendor; the very definition of yin yang.
ater (much of that spent crossing the street) I stumbled upon a large, open area. It took me a minute to realize why I suddenly felt a pang of recognition. I was a kid when the Tiananmen Square Massacre happened, but I remember watching the images on CBC news, I just didn’t realize how much of it all I retained. It was almost 20 years later and I was now standing on the very site that essentially introduced me to the horrors of humanity. Time stood still and yet marched on in that square. The military presence was still evident everywhere you turned but it was also possible to purchase a hat celebrating the upcoming Olympics from a street vendor; the very definition of yin yang.
Setting out on foot again to explore more iconic Beijing, I quickly gave up the walk and took a $0.75 terrifying ri
de in a motorized scooter cart to the Temple of Heaven Park. This is one of the most amazing and bizarre parks in the world - it’s huge and it’s full of people, all elderly, doing odd things. The tai chi I expected. The sword fighting, hacky sacking and line dancing were unexpected. I saw some men taking their birds for a walk; the birds were still in their cages. There was a large gathering, some chanting and then - poof – everyone just got up and walked away. The Temple of Heaven Park was also my first 
introduction to the bizarre world of Chinese leaf aversion. It reminds me of how my mom would freak out if there were magazines on the table when people would come over. She would worry that our guests would think badly of us, clearly we were slobs. Perhaps China felt the world would judge them and their leaf covered pathways. Either way, this led to a lot of sweeping as autumn continued its assault on the sidewalks below. The actual temples in the park are spectacular and best of all, not a leaf anywhere near them.
Craving some sort of normalcy at this point, I elected to spend my afternoon at the zoo. I have learnt that this is a fantastic activity anywhere in the world when you want a nice mixture of the foreign and the familiar. In a country that is just coming to terms with basic human rights, it should come as no surprise that animal rights are non-existent, but it did. I saw rhinos and elephants in cages so small the animals literally could not turn around. Spectacled Bears, so conditioned to beg, would do tricks for the visitors who would then throw random food into their cage. It was refreshing, but not surprising to see that the Chinese animals faired better in terms of enclosures than the other nationalities. My zoo visit could not be complete without snapping a few photos of China’s national symbol and my reason for visiting this country.
s. I am not sure why, I am generally not the type to go for something cute and fuzzy but pandas are awesome. It would be truly amazing to see a Panda in the wild but considering their extreme flirtation with extinction perhaps it’s for the best that we keep snap happy idiot tourists, such as me, away from them. I was content just to see the bear in China. My previous experience with these amazing creatures was at the San Diego Zoo, where the Panda is king. In San Diego, access to the Panda enclosure is regulated and you are not permitted to talk above a whisper in the area. In Beijing I watched a visitor to the zoo throw an apple at a sleeping panda. I stared at her, dumbfounded that anyone could be so horrible and wished with all my might that this gentle giant would wake up and maul that moron to death. I could take photos.My first day of adventure concluded with a very courageous subway ride home. It took me an hour to buy a ticket as I foolishly kept trying to wait in line for the next available window. Here’s a tip for anyone ever venturing to that part of the world…the Chinese don’t queue…for anything – just push your way to the front. Lesson learnt and ticket now in hand I pushed onto a subway. It was another one of those “one of these things is not like the other” instances. Some little boy kept staring at me; I think I may have been the fattest person he had ever seen. I am not gargantuan or anything, I mean in your average American Wal-Mart I look svelte. He wasn’t being rude; he just seemed in awe, almost impressed. It’s nice to be impressive to someone, even if it is for having a giant ass.
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