What’s To Like About Beijing?

10. The subway is clean, efficient, and has bilingual announcements at each stop.
9. Dogs are popular pets and people take good care of them.
8. Nearly all western food products are available, if you’re willing to pay more for them.
7. There’s an organic vegetable and fruit market in my neighborhood.
6. The 2008 Olympics live on.
5. History and the present are curiously intermingled; like a huge, ancient city gate next to a flashing billboard.
4. Street life – dancing, old men playing cards, musicians, food carts with big woks, bicycles…
3. One gorgeous park after another.
2. You can jog on the sidewalk and no one stares or cares (unlike my experiences in Nanchang).
1. There aren’t many places to hike, but the Great Wall is a bus ride away, and you’ve got to admit – that’s pretty sweet.