Hiya Ramsey, How are you doing these days ?
I was in Beijing briefly at the beginning and middle of Oct. One Oct 2nd, there was an air of celebration still. Tiananmen was absolutely wall to wall with people, mostly in-country tourists. Everyone milling about peacefully looking at the provincial floats on display from the prior days parade. We didn't see any begging. We walked up and down streets for miles, somewhat understandably lost. We passed through a large business/hotel district next to Tiananmen which was festively lit up, the streets were wall to wall people. "Exotic" restaurants like KFC and McDonalds were overflowing with lines in the streets but regular department stores and specialty stores appeared empty.
I saw more cars and less bikes than I expected. (My first time there).
Lots of tourists at the Wall, and the other tourist spots (Ming tombs, PearlWorld). Mainly Chinese but a significant showing of non-Asians too. Small street corner commerce prevalent too.
The part of Tibet that we visited (Lhasa and Xigase) had almost no military presence except for token "show of force" positions like bridge guards, etc. Street corner and small shop commerce active there as well. Cars were limited but in Tibet the main vehicle of choice appeared to be large modern SUVs, Land Cruisers and the like.
Majority of Tibetans traveled by mini-tractor pulling small flatbed trailers.
The planes and airports were crowded and full. The aircraft seemed big and modern. Airbus 340 for 2.5 hour leg from Beijing to Chengdu. Airbus 340-300 from Chengdu to Lhasa (2 hr). Boeing 757 from Lhasa to Kathmandu (1.5 hr). All belonged to China Southwest Airlines. No aging Tupolov turboprops as I had, perhaps naively, previously feared.<g> |
