Stories of the Middle Kingdom

Old Beijing

I am in Beijing for a week. Here is Qianmen (Chee-en-men, literally means Front Gate), at the south end of Tian'anmen Square. I couldn't get onto the square the day I was in the area, because of political meetings going on across the street (no one was allowed on the square except a few police and/or soldiers).

Though spring's arrival is only two days' away, there is no sign of spring going on here. The city looks old, dusty and tired. Like the way I feel.

Beijing is full of interesting historical sights. I've seen them all. And though I feel guilty for not seeing the Great Wall every time I come to this city, the facts are like this (1) Who would think such a beautiful sight could get "old" after a few dozen visit? It does though; and (2) I went once before in March. It is not very photogenic in March.

So I do what most visitors to Beijing do. I go shopping (window shopping really, I bought a cardigan and nothing else), and go to Starbucks.

Even Starbucks can get boring after awhile. Most of the time when you are inside of one, you have no idea if you are in Dallas, Moscow, or London. However....

The sensitive souls who put together the Starbucks on Qian Men Pedestrian street should be applauded for the authentic Chinese furniture and architecture used for their Starbucks. It's lovely (above).

In Chinese, "Bu Xing" (boo-shing) can mean, according to the context/tone, pedestrian or it can mean "not okay." So, for fun I call pedestrian streets, "Not Okay Streets."