h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Nothing greatly exciting to report today.
I spent the morning at the gym and having a swim. It was bliss being the only one in the pool.

Then, feeling rather bored of doing sudoku puzzles, I decided to venture out of the hotel complex and do some window shopping so took a taxi down to the Lufthansa Shopping Mall.
Taxis here are very cheap and cost around the same as using the bus in the UK so they're a convenient method of getting around Beijing. The only problem is the volume of traffic; it seems to be permanent rush hour in the middle of the city.

The shopping mall was a bit of a disappointment. I was expecting lots of different shops but it was more of a very up-market department store; full of extremely expensive and mostly useless things.
Again, I felt like a giant, going round the ladies clothing floor. Most garments seemed to be UK size 6 - or 8, for the fatties.

I was tempted by a couple of items. One was a beautiful Chinese tea set ¨C complete with tray, drainer, tea bowls and teapot. Due to it being about two hundred quid and difficult to transport home, it's still on the shelf. I'm sure I'll find something equally good, and a lot cheaper, elsewhere.
There was also a rather attractive blue cloisonn¨¦ vase. It wasn't too expensive but I know it would just end up gathering dust at Teuchter Towers so it's still on the shelf too.
I had a good look around most of the store and seemed to have a Chinese person at my shoulder most of the afternoon. At first I thought they reckoned I was up to no good but, on reflection, it was probably because they're on commission and wanted to make sure they were on hand had I decided to make a purchase.

Next stop was the supermarket, down in the basement. The interesting thing about such places here is that they still put price stickers on the goods; something we haven't done in the UK for many years since the advent of barcodes.
There seemed to be little departmentalising of goods; baby milk next to shaving foam etc. The fruit and veg counter was a revelation. There were all sorts of things I've only ever seen in pictures ¨C and all very neatly packaged. Wish I'd thought to take a couple of photos.

The journey back to the hotel did not start well. The first few taxis in the queue refused to take me. It's possible they felt the journey was too short to be worth their while. I've been told that the drivers rent their cars at a fairly steep fee and have a hard time to make a living on such low fares.
Eventually I figured out that the best approach was to get into the car, close the door and then tell the driver where I wanted to go.

Another thing I've noticed about shops, restaurants etc is that they all seem to be vastly overstaffed. Beijing has a population of about 14 million people ¨C and that¡¯s just the permanent residents; they reckon there¡¯s a further 2 million floating population on top of that. I suppose there are lots who need employment and wages are much lower than in the UK.

Not sure what I'm going to be doing tomorrow. I may take myself off to the zoo to see the s. Apparently Beijing has some new panda guests. Following the earthquake in Sichuan province, some of theirs were airlifted up here until their quarters are rebuilt.

On Saturday, we plan to visit the Summer Palace. This is where the imperial court used to decamp to in order to escape the oppressive heat in the Forbidden City. It should be somewhere Mr T will manage on his crutches.

That still sounds terribly exotic! What an experience. How is the quality of the air there? I understand they are going to take draconian measures during the Olympics to improve air quality. Will you get a chance to get out of Beijing and into the countryside?

The air's been okay over the last couple of days. We had a very heavy rain storm a few nights ago - complete with donner und blitzen - and it's been quite windy too. When I arrived, ten days ago, it was very smoggy. A lot of the time it's quite dusty - we're actually not that far from desert here and the prevailing wind blows a lot of stuff this way.
In readiness for the Olympics they're going to stop all construction work three weeks beforehand and also, they're going to try to reduce the traffic load by allowing even and odd numberplates road access on alternate days.
I think one of the big problems here is the weight of traffic and that's not going to change until the price of petrol goes up. It's ridiculously cheap - about a third of UK proces for petrol. There are no diesel cars car either.
I got a chance to go more rural the other day when I visited the Ming Tombs and climbed the Great Wall. It was good to see some landscape relief and trees after the density of buildings round here.

Hope your new job is going well