Beijing Looking Up

Beijing has most recently started to improve. Yesterday, I went to 天坛, the Temple of Heaven, a beautiful historical sight in the South of Beijing. It was a cool and party cloudy day, perfect for sight-seeing and roaming the streets. It only rained lightly a few times throughout the day. Hey, it's a start.

After the Temple of Heaven, I browsed the booths of the several story 红桥市场, Hong Qiao Market, very near to the Temple of Heaven. There, they have everything from fake Dolce bags to posters and propaganda from the days of the Revolution. It was my first real time 讨价还价，haggling the price, and I'd say I did relatively well. I at least didn't 上当受骗，or as we say: get ripped off. 

I then hopped on the 北京地铁，Beijing Subway, and took a ride back over to the street-side food venders at 王府井，Wangfujing. I had some 饺子，dumplings, and then came back to the dorm for a shower. You can see quite how dirty Beijing really is when you look at a white towel after you've used it to dry yourself off. The dirt seeps so deep into your skin that it does actually come off on the towel. Kind of gross.

Today, Sunday, June 6th, is the first absolutely pristine day in Beijing that I've seen. I actually opened the window to let the warm breeze come in. From my window, all you can see is buildings, but the window out at the end of the hallway frames a beautiful range of mountains off in the distance. On a normal day, they are all but completely veiled by the 空气污染和雾, air pollution and hazy fog. 

And now, since the sun is likely to soon retreat behind its protective layer of Beijing clouds, I am going to enjoy it while it has come out to play. So, as they say here in Beijing: "Bye bye!!"