First Impressions

The airport terminal in Beijing has these immense cavernous spaces. Hard to do it justice on a photo. Not very crowded-they have built with room for growth. The customs lines were very quick and easy, as was getting money. One of my first interactions with other people was a bit ironic. We were walking and see this caucasian guy coming the other way. As he gets closer, he gets a sly little smile. I realize as he passes that he is giving me the Texas Longhorns 'hook-em horns' hand sign and that I'm wearing my polo shirt with the OU logo that Matthew gave me for father's day. A football rivalry of truly international proportions.

We were met by co-worker Jian, a meteorologist from the Ministry of Water Resources and a driver. The government ministry or university or large corporate motor pools all have chauffeur staff. A large pool of labor here. I wanted to be comfortable on the long flight but didn't want to be too casual when meeting our hosts. No worry-both were youngish guys and the water resources person (real hard to catch or spell names still) was wearing docker type shorts and a black T-shirt with 'Rock My World Baby' in large english lettering. Wearing clothes with english phrases is a fashion statement, just as we'll see chinese calligraphy character in the US. What it means is a secondary concern.

It was about an hour drive to the hotel. On first glance, a lot of the city looks like a major US city. Reminded me of Los Angeles, more than anything. First off there was the thick brown haze. Probably even worse smog than I remember seeing in L.A. back in the 70's. On closer inspection, there is all the chinese signage - that's different. The vegatation also reminds me of L.A., lots of trees and shrubs, but the drought tolerate kind - like those tall skinny cypress. It's not that wet here, about 22 inches a year. Most of that falls in July and Aug during the warm and muggy monsoon season and then there is a long dry spell fall to spring.

Tons of construction cranes and huge apartment blocks. It's a boomtown. As we got farther along we could see more neighborhoods, parks and shopping districts and you would see more traditional chinese design and architecture.