Beijing update

Dear readers, I am happy to report that despite many reports of beijing's constant growth, it appears to have not changed at all much in the last year.

I am wrapping up a short an uneventful stay in beijing, essentially a reprise of my favorite things from my earlier visit. I flew in, went to the sichuan provinvial office's official sichuan restaurant (beaurocrats really do know how to eat) . If you have been here in the past, you will be sad to know that it has now been mentioned in several guide books, and so is being frequented by people like us. Not so many, however, so that when I walked and wanted to know where my friend shupp was, the words "big foreigner" were not enough to have me led to him.

I then went down the road to the "foot massage palace", a monument to the wonders of the chinese service culture - an oppulant pleasuredome of a massage parlor, where the specialty is the "palace massage", where you get one masseuse for each foot. Readers who have been here in the past will be pleased to know that they have added a new service to the rate card; the "king massage", where you get worked on by 5 people at once; two for the legs, two for the arms, and 1, I assume, for the head.

I had a very nice stay with shupp at his courtyard house pad. Things went very smoothly at first, but I was not to be disappointed by the lack of any shupping: he inadvertantly sent me to the wrong airport to catch my flight on to Urumqi. Easily unshupped- I am now on my way to right airport for a later flight. The ubiquitous beijing traffic gives me time to write this.

I still like beijing. Being able to speak a smattering of chinese helps me navigate, and lessens the feeling of utter reliance on a cell phone with a translator on speed dial that I had before. From the street level perspective, the capital is buzzing along towards is rightful place as one of the world's capitals. The young people working in the shops and restaurants unabashedly use their terrible english with all the confidence of the heirs to the earth (shupp calls this confidence rude). It must be quite a thing growing up in a country that has had double-digit growth as long as you can remember.

Even the dealers at the underground casino that shupp runs in an llegally-rented luxury condo east of town seem to be enjoying themselves. At least they were smiling more than the surly expat players.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld