Beijing in a bambooshell

Okay, nutshell, bambooshell, you know what I mean. I'm going to be lazy and sum up a few things I wrote before with some new things about my impressions of Bejing, but obviously some of this covers China in general...

-Squat toilets... something to get used to (strizan, you would DIE!). I've seen them before and I know its not that big of a deal, buuuut... its still not so pleasant.
-the spitting and burping. Also something to get used to (ugh! Its sooo gross though!).
-the history - amazing! I was bad and didn't brush up too much on my ancient Chinese history before I came, but I've been learning as I've been going. We already went to Tian'nan sqaure, the Forbidden City (amazingly big. There are many monuments for the 24 emperors that lived there over a span of 500 years and they have mini dragons and animals at the edges of the roof of each monument. The more animals to you have, the more 'higher-up' status you have. i.e. 9 vs. 3 (for the 'lower-class' concubines), the Temple of Heaven, the life of many emperors, the communist revolution, and .... how much the people still love and worship Mao. Oh, we went to see his mausolem, by the way. Cool to see him embalmed, I guess he is risen twice a day for public viewing, then he goes back below ground to his refridgerated room. I saw Lenin in Moscow, and they both look like wax figures. Still kinda cool. But yea, the many many temples we are seeing are super beautiful and colorful.

-Olympic Fever! They are definitely getting ready! 08/08/08 (the number 8 is a lucky Chinese #). I think its going to be REALLY cool, but yes, things are mega under construction here and most sites are still unfinished. I'm REALLY curious to how everything is going to pan out. They are not exactly customer friendly. Either they shove things in your face or they completely ignore you. More often than not, just ignore you. And its not exactly English-friendly either. We will see what happens. I have a sad feeling that things are just going to get more and more expensive (actually, I know they will. I bought a pin and keychain and it was TOTALLY overpriced. Its just the beginning I suppose!).
-Pollution - not as bad as I thought! We've had mostly sunny/overcast days. Today was the 1st day it rained... of course when we rented bikes for the day. Bangkok was 23094823904823904328904 worse and some other cities I've been to. I think the Olympic athletes will survive! I'd say if anything its hazy, but breathable.
-The Art of Bargaining - now this if fun, but emotionally draining. You really have to be in the mood. A few travelers that we met in Aust and NZ gave us some tips to just have fun with it, NOT to get angry, and this definitely has been true so far. You can pretty much guarantee that you will be given a price at least 50% higher than what its worth. Usually more. So you start the bidding. Kinda depending, but basically I've been started wayyy under and then trying to get a compromise maybe 60-70% of what they say. But then again yesterday I bought a Mao watch (he he, I had to!) for 20 yuan when he originally asked for 150 (which is like less than 3 dollars). It is actually fun, and its a lot of acting (gasping, looking shocked, shaking your head). You finally reach a final price where both of you are smiling. Then you walk away feeling good about yourself.... until the next block when you see the same exact thing you bought for 1/2 the price you bargained for. D'oh! Then you can just see the salesperson being like "haha! sucker!" But I try to think that I'm feeding their family, and its like $1 anyway. Which speaking of,
-Cost: SUPER CHEAP! Even though we are mega getting ripped off, its still dirt cheap (hostel room, $5/night, lunch: $2 for the 3 of us).
-Haggling: Annoying, but once again, I've seen worse (Eqypt). In super toursity areas, people just follow you around, but most of the time its like "lady! Looky looky! You want shoes? Good price special for you." Yea, whatever.
-Food: Pretty darn good! We've been doing some pointing and hand gestures, but so far we have been pretty lucky! And its been helping that we learned a trick to take a pepto tablet at the start of the day to coat our stomachs and (hopefully) try to prevent some future stomach probs. So far its worked! But yes, its very oil friendly... maybe thats why it is so good!
-The architecture: its kinda interesting. Still some very communist boring looking buildings, but then there are also some very modern looking structures. Especially for the Olympics they are builiding some crazy interesting modern structures/builings by some famous Swedish, Swiss, and English architects. Kinda Cool. Of course none of it is done yet.
-Bikes! Bikes! Bikes Everywhere! Its not as bad as Amsterdam, but there are a LOT of people on bikes and you have to tone your ears to the bell and to not be run over by one. Between bikes and cars, it seriously does take us 1/2 an hour to cross the massive 8-lane streets! BUT, Beijing is VERY VERY bike friendly - meaning that they have a separate mini aisle separated from the cars for bikes only. We actually rented bikes today and went around Beijing and its a pretty efficient way to get around... but also dangerous. I think I almost died like 10X.
-the bad english. Pretty much 80% of the time, things are spelled wrong, and said wrong. Basically, it just looks cool to write things in English, no matter if it makes sense or not. Its just funny. First your like, "uhh.. what?" Then you kind of have to take a sec to decipher it... then it still doesn't make sense. Menu's and signs are also pretty darn funny too. I'll try to post some up later.
-Noise and crowds: Definitely noisy, buuuut not as jam packed as I thought. When you got to Chinatown anywhere in the world, its usually packed with people. Here, well, its a little more spread out. Crowded, but nothing unbearable and different than any other big city. Definitely not as bad as I thought.
-And to refer to what I was writing about earlier, yes they still love Mao, and yes, there is a little part of me that thinks this blog is really being censored. We will see!

Oh, here is a Giant Panda. Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cute!!!