In North Chaoyang there is an old factory site from the communist time. The site is today transformed into contemporary art center called Factory 798 from the street address. The rough lines of East German architecture, further accentuated by state-approved graffiti, beautifully contrast the subtle details of drawings and sculptures.

In a city where one block without a car feels like a marathon, it was pleasant to walk around in a low-building, small-sized area. Make no mistake, 20,000 square meters makes the overall size Peking style.

Currently I am reading Obama’s the Audacity of Hope. As literature alone it is not a master piece, but Obama is reflecting and analytical, far from dogmatic. As always Obama is skinny when it comes to propositions.

A motivation for a sportsman to visit Beijing is of course to feel the Olympic spirit. It is apparent everywhere that the whole of Beijing has been rebuilt. The Olympics has perhaps not been the only motivation for new parks and roads, but the Olympics has set the timeline. I do not know any city that has undergone such a big and unsentimental change. Everything is new and dimensioned in gigantic proportions. A lu is twice as big as a street in Manhattan. A park is measured in kilometers. When observing the cars, the roads, the buildings there is no doubt that China’s export success has created great wealth in the big cities. China is not a developing country.

Beijing is a vast city and there is no view or picture that can capture it. The best is actually to run a video camera while going in a taxi. There are seven districts in Beijing – Dongcheng, North Chaoyang, Chongwen, South Chaoyang, Haidian, Xicheng and Xuanwu. So far I have done the four first.

Chairman Mao's face at Tian'anmen gate

Dongcheng has the the Forbidden City, Tian’anmen Square, Chairman Mao Memorial Hall and the Great Hall of the People (the congress). The only disappointment with the Forbidden City is that all treasures are not there any more.

In Chongwen there are still hutong areas. But they are in bad shape and it looks like they will be replaced. There is also imperial architecture in the divine shape of Temple of Heaven inside a huge park.

South Chaoyang displays skyscrapers in Central Business District, most notably the monumental CCTV towers (one burnt down by firework excesses, the the other plays with gravity). For tourists it also has the Silk Market and the Pearl Market.

City view from the olympic park

North Chaoyang is where I stay. It is more famous of housing the embassies and the Olympic park. The Olympic park has enormous open spaces. There are several nice perspectives of the Bird’s Nest (the National Stadium). The Water Cube is, as we say here, a good yin to the yang.

Me, O+S, M+P went 120 km away from Beijing to the Simatai Great Wall. It is the only section that keeps the original appearence from the Ming Dynasty. The construction started in the Hongwu years (1368-1398). The section is 5,4 km long with 35 beacon towers. The highest placed tower is at 986 meters altitude. A valley separates Simatai in a western and an eastern part. There is a small rope bridge joining them, which we did not cross. We were on the eastern side and it had steep, interesting parts to climb.

I have nothing to compare with but I am clearly satisfied. Insiders say that Simatai is the most wonderful part of the Great Wall. Except from the amazing views, I was particularly happy to have the moment relatively undisturbed by tourists and guards. Most people that visit the Great Wall go to Badaling or Mutianyu, supposedly modern sections and closer to Beijing. However, they are building a big road to Simatai, so the crowded days may come soon.

In the evening me, o+s went to the Swedish Embassy for a young leaders forum. There were speakers, amongst other Scania Trucks’ China director and a diplomat. We met young Swedes venturing a career in China and Chinese with Swedish associations, for example through studies.

I arrived at 9.30 a.m. Bejing time. Of course my lousy Bouygues Telecom card had no roaming outside Europe. Stupid me, I should have remembered and taken my Swedish SIM-card. Exchanged some money for bad rates and jumped into a taxi. We listened to Chinese music in the car – something like Swedish dance band – and the driver sang along.

Beijing has six ring roads. The infrastructure is very different from Stockholm, where there is not even one ring road. When I looked at the map the first and innermost ring road that I could see was actually the second, so maybe there are only five in practise. Apparently where the second ring road goes today, there was a city wall between 1435 and 1950.

The airport is situated northeast of the city and there is a nice express way from the airport towards the centre crossing the ring roads.  My destination was supposed to be close to the 4th ring road, also in the northeastern part. Sam had kindly written instructions in Chinese for the driver.

I had not looked at the map before just leaving France. Luckily enough I realised at the same time that I needed the address in English. Google helped me to find an old e-mail with it. The address was six lines. The phone numbers are long too.

We came to a complex of buildings and the driver asked in Chinese if this was the place. I said that I had no idea. I was supposed to meet m+p at the entrance. After some back and forth we were down in the parking house and I saw one number which equaled my block number. So I stepped off without really being sure if I was at the right address.

I had a four-digit unit number, so I did a binary search and started with floor 15. The first two numbers determined the level so I aborted the algorithm and went down to floor 11. Only two apartments on this floor and I rang on the bell. An old lady opened.  Wrong apartment I thought and stepped back to leave. She made signs and then I realized. It was here. I had met the ayi. I am not used to cleaning ladies.

It’s 9 days to take off. Target is PEK. Airline KL. Alliance SkyTeam, frequent flyer program Flying Blue. Stop in Schiphol. First segment operated by KLM CITYHOPPER. Equipment Fokker F70. Meal Service: Snack. Reservation system 1A. Priced as roundtrip. Bought at Expedia. IATA compliant e-Ticket.

If I had been more conscious about details, I wouldn’t have bought a trip to terminal 2 at Beijing Capital International Airport. This was a big mistake and now I will miss the new, fresh, “olympic” terminal 3. Star Alliance is there, oneworld is there, Qatar is there, even Shandong Airlines is there. Terminal 3 is larger than London Heathrow Airport’s 5 terminals combined with another 17% to spare. But KLM/AF is in terminal 2.

à bientôt,
Staffan