Smog free living

Wednesday morning we got up and were shocked - there was no smog!

It is amazing, because the day we did The Wall, it was disgusting. Seriously, you couldn't see two blocks in front of you!

So we headed out - tried to do the Underground City, but it was closed.

After that, we went to The Beijing City Planning Exhibition Hall.

Sure, it was neat to see the scale model of the city, but none - and I mean none - of the signs or descriptions were in English, making it a cool, but relatively uninformative visit.

They did have a 4D movie though - we couldn't see it, but Jarod mentioned something about it being about Aquarius' age or something.

After teh Hall, it was off to shop till we dropped and to see Embassy row and where Jarod used to live.

Embassy row was neat, but just after walking past the embassies, we ended up in what seemed like little Russia. Russian restos, stores selling furs galore and a lost of writing in Ruskie.

Weird.

Then we caught a cab to Jarod's old neighborhood. He hadn't been back to his hood for a number of years and was shocked at the development that now surrounded it.

It is amazing what unlimited resources will do for development.

This was also the second night we attempted to go out. The time was a bust - we just ended up going for pizza and beer (yes, you read that right).

The second time was a bit of a bust too - the gay club we went to was empty and the other clubs were full of irritating 17 year old Chinese kids on too much Red Bull, listening to bad hip-hop. Ew.

So, we went back to the hotel, happy to not be out.

Oh, and this was disturbing - we got out of our cab to go to a club and this 8 year old boy in Santa hat opens the door, wishes us Merry Christmas, asks us for money and takes a drag of his smoke!

We aren't in Communism anymore Toto.