Beijing

Beijing 5/9
(another retro post)

First impressions of Beijing, not what I expected but I rather expected that. I suppose that I'm not letting out any state secrets when I say that it's massive, massive in every respect. The motorway from the airport into the city is at least 5 lanes in both directions but on either side there are neat rows of trees of varying heights equivalent to another 3 lanes. None of which was here 10 or even 3 years ago.
Then I am in my hotel, total time from Auckland less than 16 hours. The hotel is very fine as good as anything I have ever been in an offical 4 stars, and 10 minutes walk from Tianamen square.
After check in cool down chill out clean up and a cup of green tea a few of the delegation get together for a stroll to the famous square. my first impressions of which were an odd sense of quasi- Deja Vu an odd sort of sensation that has been folloowing me around in China a lot.
Its the sensation that you have seen this p[lace before combined with the absolute certainty that you haven't. The hundreds of pictures, scores of books and dozens of movies I have seen st in and about Beijing make this place instantly recognisable but the photos cannot reproduce the scale of the place or what my old philosophy professor called "The Qualia" the actually feeling of being there and doing it. I take a few pictures ( will try to post them soon) and while lining up for the perfect shot of the portrait of Mao over the gate the Deja Vu strikes me again as I review the shot I realise that I have seen it before and that I must have been standing on the same spot that all the other ones must have been taken nut now it's megapixel digital not monochrome film and it's hundreds of 4 door sedans cruising past not thousands of bicycles.