No longer third world...

Bird's Nest and Lama Temple

Beijing has changed soooooo much! But let's start with the beginning...

I forced myself awake today at 9:15am and during breakfast made day plans with two dudes from NYC- one who works at Barclays, the other is doing a Fulbright on education policy in Taiwan. We decided to hit Temple of Heaven first and got on the subway. Unfortunately, Fulbright got us going in the wrong direction and we ended up in the Stamford of Beijing, about 40 minutes out of the way. Alas. So, on our way back, we stopped at the Lama Temple. Lama Temple is amazing. It builds up with temple after temple of Buddhas to the final temple which has an enormous Buddha carved from ONE white oak tree. You have to tip your head all the way back to see the head. It's phenomenal.

Then it was on to the Temple of Heaven. We were hungry and couldn't find anything to eat so we stopped in Yoshimaya or something like that. There's one in Times Square and it's MSG hell. The Temple of Heaven was quite nice. The main attraction is the Temple of Harvests which has a great view of the city. It rained all day so the view was much clearer than it would be on a brown haze day.

I want to give a shout out to YangKan who set me up with his friend Sissi. We met up in the Financial District and went out for a hotpot dinner. It's Chinese fondue and is delicious! After a long dinner (which is customary) and excellent conversation about environmental policy (she translates for an American NGO) she took me to the Olympic area. 8 years ago, Beijing was a disgusting city that left a film of filth on your body after 2 hours outside. People were spitting everywhere and the place smelled like a dump. Beijing in 2010 is an entirely different city and the Olympic games made a lot of that happen. There are a bunch of new, clean and easy to use subway lines, there are public toilets everywhere and there is a ton of security. And no one spits. Well, almost no one. The Bird's Nest Stadium and Water Cube are unbelievable works of architecture that are ultra modern. They symbolize a new Beijing.

Jet lag has hit me and my eyes are closing involuntarily. I've got to get to sleep for my 8am flight tomorrow.

The Swedish woman next to me looked over my shoulder and told me that it isn't jet lag, it's the partying. Probably true.