So I’ve been in Beijing for over a week and I’ve come to find that Beijing is just like any other large city. I know that some people are probably thinking “Uh, yeah of course!” and others are wondering what I mean. I’m betting that some people think that all cities in China have the architecture of the old Qing and Ming dynasties. That is not true of Beijing. While there are parts of the city that are like that, many areas are more modern looking. If it wasn’t for the Chinese characters on the buildings I would think that I’m in any other large in America or anywhere else. There are nice areas, there are rundown areas, there are areas with garbage in the streets, there are even homeless people. Beijing does have some things that are somewhat unique to it (at least from what I’ve seen in my limited travels). For instance on my way to work this week I saw someone mopping the parking lot! Now while the city is somewhat dirty, I would never have thought to mop the parking lot to clean it up. There is quite an effort in the city to clean it up though with the approaching Olympic Games in 2008. Parts of the city are being torn down to be rebuilt new for the Games. Even in the week I’ve been here I can tell a difference. It could be because I walk to work everyday and see the same area day after day. I’ve posted some pictures of the city on my website. This also includes pictures from my visit to the Forbidden City which I’ll be writing another entry about soon.