I found my hotel, which was down a side alley (the side alleys of beijing, called hutongs, line the roads between main streets and are where the majority of the populations live) with relative ease:
They were very friendly and let me check in at 8am; I rented a bike from them (US $4 for the whole day!) and biked around the city - Beijing is the flattest city I've ever seen and that makes it extremely bikeable; they even have traffic lights specially for bikes, which I am here depicted running as I take a picture of it:
That brings me to a very strange thing about China: traffic laws. They seem to be optional here. Red lights can be run if there aren't too many people going the other direction, police and soldiers stand by and watch as cars zoom through intersections, playing chicken with one another, and all drivers are under the impression that honking gives them the right of way. As a bike or pedestrian, it's common to hear a blasting horn from right behind you or right next to you - that means you should stop, because there's a car coming and it's not going to. I've cursed at a few people, so it's a good thing most of them don't speak english.
I also caught my first glimpse of the Forbidden City, though I didn't go inside until later in the week:
All over the city, beautiful (and really old) buildings are plopped down in the middle of modern buildings and busy streets:
On my way back to the hotel, I ran into a fruit vendor:
The smiling gentleman in an american camo t-shirt smoking a cigarette like it was part of his mouth declined to be part of this shot, but he was thrilled that I wanted to buy his fruit!
I spent the evening planning my next few days - Look for the Great Wall and Forbidden City coming up!
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