China: pt.1

I live in Oslo, Norway's by far most populated city. Compared to Beijing, however, it's an empty little dot on the world map. The only place I'd been to that I'd dare compare it to before I went, was Bangkok. "Ah, big Asian city, lots of cars, lots of people." Had to be somewhat similiar. As I got out of the airport, it hit me though: "Oh, oh, oh. This sure ain't Bangkok." So, to put it short. Beijing was nothing like anything I'd been to before. Because never, ever had I been to a place with so much people. Everywhere. (And man, you can say the same thing about Shanghai.)

The people were, mostly at least, a great bunch of friendly faces. Sure, we didn't understand a damn word the other said at times, but with sound effects and frantic waving of hands, communication is easily made possible. In short, I learned to say only two phrases in Mandarin: nǐhǎo (hello) and xièxie (thank you). If you're able to smile and laugh at yourself, those two are at least somewhat sufficient. At least in the process of ordering dinner, or asking for basic help and directions. If you want a taxi however, just give up. We did. And then we tried again. And gave up again. And so it went on. To put it short: we basically lived down in the subway system.


There's a lot of things I'm eager to show you; the places we lived at, the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and our visit to the zoo/aquarium. There's Shanghai at night, and there's the resaturants in the alleys of Beijing. There's crammed experiences at the subway, and there's seriously strange visits to the supermarket. But.. Where do I start?