Greetings from Beijing-Tianjin

After returning from the DPRK and arriving in Beijing I immediately worked my way back down to Tianjin where I hoped the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel would have a room for me: they did and remembered me from my prior several weeks stay before the DPRK trip.

Traffic is chaotic in Beijing, actually everywhere I've paid attention. Right turning vehicles always have the right of way even when the pedestrian walk sign is showing and anyone on foot had better get out of the way or run the risk of ending up in a hospital! While I found crossing the streets at intersections hazardous, the Chinese seem to manage without complaint. If I am in the middle of a marked crosswalk and a car is bearing down on me, I know it is prudent to hustle out of the way!

Interconnected shopping complexes create a 3-D maze of commercial activity and make it easy to get lost.  Several of the shopping malls are located at connected subway stations. So, in theory one could travel from one shopping venue to many others without ever seeing the sky! Well dressed people crowded every shopping mall I visited and sales are brisk. I reflected constantly how ignoring the different ethnicities, I could have been in any of the great Western cities, so much alike are the two experiences now. China is on a meteoric rise to becoming a super-power. Of course I have not been west for more than ten years, so the situation in the large cities may not reflect the reality throughout the country.  

3 September 2015: At 07:20 this morning I awoke to a five minute series of loud explosions. For a moment I thought a gun battle might be in progress below my 18th floor room in the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel. Dashing to the window I say flashes in the sky from fireworks over the railroad yard visible from my vantage. China is celebrating the end of World War II and the defeat of Japan.

8 September 2015: Today I leave by over night sleeper bus for Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and will return in time to catch my Bangkok bound flight on 23 September, 2015.

 

Peace,

 

Fred L. Bellomy