Beijing - especially with the nice day yesterday - is starting to show its colors a little. It is amazing to see daily changes around town. They work through the night building new and fixing old as the ubiquitous Olympic clocks tick down - ever closer - to the day that these people hope will catapult them headlong into the modern world. It is actually quite amazing to talk with everyday Beijingers - cab drivers, waiters, and the like - in their native Chinese, and hear the kind of language they use to talk about the coming months. The Chinese are famous for their ancient proverbs and brilliant propaganda slogans -- they haven't lost their touch.
And maybe even more spectacular is how this country and its people are reaching out to the world in an unprecedented way. Just two days ago, as I was walking into the gate at the Temple of heaven, a Chinese boy no older than seven or eight came up to me and said, "Hello! Welcome to Beijing." It was a small but genuine gesture. I smiled and thanked him - in English, of course, figuring that was what he was hoping for - and he scurried happily back over to his friend, proud of his country and its culture, cognizant (or maybe not so) of its turbulent past, but (nevertheless) optimistic about its future. It is not something I will soon forget.
In any case, it's back to raining every day...so much for that.
34.
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