Beijing

I woke up on the 27th March to a day that could only be described as a perfect 10; clear blue sky, low humidity, buildings whose glass sparkled in the reflected sunlight and sidewalks remarkable for how clean they were.Welcome to modern Beijing. Any one booked for the August Olympics is going to be pleasantly surprised. Even the public toilets have attendants imbued with a single minded intensity to ensure that these facilities remain clean.I hope that western visitors come forewarned about the standard "floor"model. Our hotel, hoping to avoid this 'sticky' problem, cleverly installed toilets whose height is halfway in between!
Mal and I spent most of the day walking, hopping a taxi only to take us to one of the Hutong districts. These are areas of old Beijing that have survived centuries of crises in the city and now find themselves threatened with extinction in the twenty first century by something mistakenly considered progress. Here we found the last redoubt of the once ubiquitous rickshaw, now used solely to transport tourists. Our guide book recommended these as the best way to explore the area.
During the seventh century Beijing was built on a system of grids. Within each grid there is a labyrinth of small streets and lanes. These are created by small, single story houses which surround a shared courtyard.The back doors open onto the narrow lanes, or hutongs. Most districts still carry the name of the craft or skill that they were formally associated with such as millinery, weaving etc. Normally passed from generation to generation, I saw some evidence that these houses are being purchased and renovated by young ambitious Chinese.

Commercial Beiling appears very prosperous. All the cars, including taxis,look brand new. Mal suspects that older models are banned because they are more likely to contribute to pollution. People are fashionably dressed,especially the young, and there is an energy about the city that is infectious.
There is little evidence of the rebelliousness that caused the tragedy of Tiananmen Square. I suspect that full employment, because of the Olympics,leaves people either too busy or too tired at the end of the day to have time for adverse politics. Not that all is well. The army is omnipresent throughout the city and there is still serious censorship. I was watching CNN news when my screen went blank. It frustrated me that the stations on either side of this channel were working perfectly. Suddenly CNN returned,thankfully, because I was giving myself a bad case of Nintendonitis with the remote control. Later, when it happened again, I realized that the trigger was the mention of Tibet. All the news about Tibet is censored. This censorship extends to the newspapers. A story, as reported by the International Herald Tribune, is distinctly different to the same story as reported by the state run China News.
Please appreciate how wonderful it is to live in a free world - in spite of all the warts - and the National Enquirer!