Happy Holidays!

The Great Wall, December 25 2005

Happy New Year, everyone! Whether your family celebrates Christmas, Kwanzaa, Chanukah, Festivus, or no tradition in particular, I hope your holiday was a wonderful one. As for me, I spent much of this holiday season exploring Beijing, the capital city of the world's largest communist country. Ah yes...nothing says "Christmas Spirit" like a communist regime with mounting human rights abuse issues, eh?

It was negative two degrees celcius when I stepped off the plane and the wind managed to pierce through my two layers of pants, three shirts, winter jacket, and two pairs of gloves! I've never felt cold like that! Immediately, a number of red flags put my radar on high-alert. Now, it wasn't the fact that customs' security seemed a little lax that made me wary (I was asked no questions at all upon entering the country and the only security check I went through was at the airport in Japan). Nor was it the throngs of suspicious-looking taxi-drivers carrying fake identification cards who besieged me the moment I stepped out of customs. Nor was it even that within several hours of my arrival three people tried to short-change me and two people physically tried to haul/pull me off the street and into their shops. Nope! Rather, the moment I realized that I was really in for an adventure was when someone tried to offer me deep fried insects on a stick for breakfast! Wow! I've heard that in Shanghai people will eat anything that won't eat them back, but in Beijing I wasn't expecting anything more extreme than a duck. I must admit it took me - an epicurious traveler - a full eleven days to work myself up to eating scorpion on a stick!

Here's a photo of Claudia eating the scorpion-on-a-stick. Claudia joined me for the latter part of my trip in China and returned with me back to Japan to help me ring in the New Year. Although we couldn't be more different in out travel styles (for example...Claudia: five star hotel, Angie: backpacking during the day and sleeping in a USD $20 per night "international hotel"; Claudia: private driver, Angie: public bus; Claudia: Connecting flight from Osaka to Matsuyama, Angie: Overnight ferry sleeping on a tatami floor with fourty strangers) I really admire how Claud frequently took herself out of her comfort zone!

Truthfully, Beijing is not a city that I immediately fell in love with. In fact, sometimes it took a bit of work to enjoy it. But it is a compelling city, one that I would visit again if the opportunity presents itself.