Devon Winrick

December 2nd - Beijing

Our trips starts in Beijing. We had just finished a 12 hour flight, and I had read a good bit of Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book.

Our first goal was to get a temporary Chinese drivers license for myself. I expected this to be a very painful process given my experiences with the DMV in the states. It was quite the opposite, taking about 20 minutes with the help of my wife who did all the talking in Mandarin. They needed my passport, drivers license, and a printed photo that followed the "Chinese photo standard" - it had to be at least a certain size. We brought a passport photo but they were nice enough to cut it to size for us. We barely got it done with them closing at 5pm. This was pretty uneventful, however I noticed that the computers all ran XP w/ IE6. This was my first experience with seeing older software in China which I found interesting.

The temporary drivers license would let me drive rental cars but nothing else.

I would never need the drivers license though - not wanting to drive which I'll explain later with photos/video.

This is my first picture of China. We're on our way from the Beijing airport to the hotel. It was pretty uneventful until we hit traffic. This was also the first electric vehicle I noticed in China.

Another picture from in the bus:

When we arrived at the hotel was when I started to notice some fun cultural differences. For instance, do not give this hairdryer as a gift:

There was a Karaoke machine in our hotel lobby. These are everywhere in China. Sorry for the low picture quality, I think I took this while I was walking.

After dropping off our luggage we went out to have dinner with some of my wife's old friends. I didn't take any pictures of the food, but we had lamb hot pot. Also, her friends worked for the Government and couldn't talk about what they were doing. This was my first encounter of this - for some reason a lot of her friends work for the Government :)

Before we met her friends however we stopped at a nearby grocery store. One thing that stood out compared to western grocery stores is that they had megaphones shouting deals everywhere. This is common in China - having automated things that talk. These are exceptionally annoying though. Headphone users beware.

THESE ARE VERY LOUD

After dinner I got a couple quick pictures of the palace. They're not very good pictures, but you get the idea.

We started to walk back to the subway station (which I'll discuss more later) and saw this bike. You'll notice the big gloves on the handlebars. Most bikes/mopeds had these, since Beijing is cold.

We took the subway home. This was my first experience with Beijing's subway, which I have to say was pretty nice. I would later experience it when it is packed full.

The Beijing subway system map:

Back at the hotel I got to play with this little guy in the lobby. It talks, and as you notice it sounds like a kid. Most robots in China sound young. I guess that helps when the robot does something dumb - it's ok if a kid does it.

Once in our room again I got to take some pics of a few things that are different from the US, however a friend tells me these kinds of controls are becoming more common here. I just haven't seen them in a hotel yet.

You insert your hotel card key to keep the power on. A pretty good idea.